Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1898: Volume 54, November 1898Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1898: Volume 54, November 1898
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
=The Bactrian Camel for the Klondike.=--The great Siberian or Bactrian
camel is recommended by Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, the famous Hamburg importer
of wild beasts, as the best animal for the Klondike climate. It is at
home in the coldest regions, can carry or go in harness, can cross
mountains or traverse valleys, and is so easily supplied that Mr.
Hagenbeck can undertake to deliver any number in New York, duty paid,
for three hundred dollars each. It can endure thirst and long spells of
hunger as well as freezing cold, and is not too delicate to make its bed
on the snow. It sheds its coat before the summer heat, but as the cooler
weather of the fall comes on "it grows a garment of fur almost as thick
as a buffalo robe and equally cold-resisting. It is far more strongly
built than the southern camel. It does not 'split' when on slippery
ground, though it falls on moist, wet clay which yields to the foot. On
ice and frozen snow it stands firmly, and can travel far." It is said
that an excellent cross can be made between the male Bactrian and the
female Arabian camel; but when the parentage is reversed the progeny is
useless. General Harlan is said to have marched two thousand Bactrian
camels four hundred miles and crossed the Indian Caucasus in ice and
snow, with the loss of only one animal, and that by an accident. This
camel is native to the high plateaus, steppes, and deserts of Mongolia
and South Siberia, and it has been found wild on the plain of Tsaidam,
maintaining itself in this "arid, cold, and waterless region, where
the herds are said to travel seventy miles to drink. Nothing," we are
further told, "but too much comfort or a damp climate seems to hurt it.
For food it prefers dry, salty plants and bushes and grows sick and lean
on good pasture. The salty efflorescence of the steppes is eagerly eaten
by it, and in this country it prefers dry food, especially wheat straw
and hay. Prjevalski's camels would eat almost anything--straw, bleached
bones, old pack saddles, straps, and leather. The Mongols told him of
camels which had been without food a long time, and then devoured an old
tent belonging to their owner. They even ate meat and fish, and one of
the traveler's camels made a meal of the bird skins ready for stuffing."
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