Harnessing camels.
Although we have seen the camel harnessed much after the manner of an ox, and used in draught, it will rarely be found of much service to the explorer when used in harness: as pack animals, camels are invaluable. A good form of camel pack saddle is given at F in our full-page illustration of “[Horse Equipments]”; and the above diagrams will serve to show how ordinary camel riding saddles may be made. Any strong tough wood will answer for the uprights and side pieces; the lashings are of raw hide; the cushions, or pads, of leather, stuffed with wool or curled hair; the girths are of spun goats’ hair; and the breast strap is a wide band of plaited thongs. Some idea may be formed of the courage, power, and speed of the camel when we state that, before the opening of the Suez Railway, the mails were transported on camels’ backs twice per month across the Desert between Grand Cairo and the head of the Red Sea, a distance of eighty-four miles, without halting, in about eighteen hours. The weight of each camel-load (four mail boxes, &c.) was about 300lb.
Few matters of animal nomenclature have led to more confusion and misunderstanding than the terms “camel” and “dromedary;” and this has mainly arisen from the distinction laid down by Buffon, who states that the camel has two humps, whilst the dromedary has only one. If this point of distinction were correct, there would be no camels in Egypt, and one would have to travel to Tartary and some remote parts of Asia to find them; and the dromedary, and that only, would be found in Turkey, Arabia, Grand Cairo, Africa, and India. Amongst the Arabs and Egyptians the word “gimel” is applied to all the members of the genus—the term “dromedary” never being made use of. An animal used exclusively for riding purposes is called a “hagine”. It will, therefore, be convenient to follow their example, and call a baggage animal of this family a “camel,” and that used for riding purposes a “hagine.” Our space will not admit of our entering on the subject of camel breeding, or the various crosses of breeds found in different parts of the world, as, like those of the horse, they would fill a volume.
CHAPTER XI.
CATTLE MARKING.
In all large and imperfectly settled countries the use of a private mark, or brand, is most important, not only as a means by which animals can be identified and recovered when lost, but as the evidence of legal transfer and of particular breed or strain of stock. Animals are most commonly marked with either some conspicuous and tenacious pigment, by slits or cuts of definite form made in the ear, or by initials or some symbol branded with a heated iron on some part of the body. Sheep may be both ear-marked and lettered with either red or black paint. The lettering is easily and expeditiously effected by the use of the cover or bottom of an old biscuit tin. Lay your sheet of tin on the table, and with the point of your knife sketch out the outline of the letter or letters you have determined on as your mark, taking care that they are of conspicuous size; then with a mallet and chisel cut out the letters. You will then have a sort of stencilling sheet; cut it to a convenient size, nail a piece of wood to it for a handle, and your marker is complete. Place it against your sheep, paint over the outside of the plate with a large paint-brush, and your mark is made in an instant. Your sacks, bags, and boxes can be marked in the same manner with the same contrivance. A herd of cattle can be temporarily marked by a newly-arrived settler in a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, as follows: Procure a waggon whip handle or a long pole; then lash to its end a round ball of either hide, with the hair on, or a bit of old blanket, fixing on your ball to the stick just as the striker of a drum-stick is made. Dip this in a pot of paint or tar, and then put it adroitly against the haunch or shoulder of the animal to be marked. Give it a sudden sharp twist round, and there will be instantly formed a round ball-like spot. With a lot of timid newly-purchased cattle, with which you are anxious to move off at once, the above plan will be found a good one.
A native herdsman would despise such means of recognition; and many of the colonial farmers would know individually every horse, ox, or sheep in their possession, just as we know by expression of the countenance or peculiarity of figure any person among our own acquaintance; and we have even heard of a case in which the calf of a cow, that had been stolen many years before, was recognised by its resemblance to its mother, and the theft thus traced out and detected.