owner of an African dromedary. Only a very large cask could have
contained it.

At the watering of the animals our adventurers had an opportunity of
observing another incident of the Saara, quite as curious and original
as that already described.

It chanced that the pool that furnished the precious fluid, and which
contained the only fresh water to be found within fifty miles, was just
then on the eve of being dried up. A long season of drought, that is to
say, three or four years, had reigned over this particular portion of
the desert; and the lagoon, formerly somewhat extensive, had shrunk into
the dimensions of a trifling tank, containing little more than two or
three hundred gallons. This during the stay of the two tribes united as
wreckers had been daily diminishing; and had the occupants of the
_douar_ not struck tents at the time they did, in another day or so they
would have been in danger of suffering from thirst. This was in reality
the cause of their projected migration. But for the fear of getting
short in the necessary commodity of fresh water, they would have hugged
the seashore a little longer--in hopes of picking up a few more "waifs"
from the wreck of the English ship.

At the hour of their departure from the encampment, the pool was on the
eve of exhaustion. Only a few score gallons of not very pure water
remained in it, about enough to fill the capacious stomachs of the
camels; whose owners had gauged them too often to be ignorant of the
quantity.

It would not do to play with this closely calculated supply. Every pint
was precious; and to prove that it was so esteemed, the animals were
constrained to swallow it in a fashion which certainly nature could
never have intended.

Instead of taking it in by the mouth, the camels of these Saaran rovers
were compelled to quench their thirst through the nostrils!

You will wonder in what manner this could be effected, inquiring whether
the quadrupeds voluntarily performed this nasal imbibing?

Our adventurers, witnesses of the fact, wondered also--while struck with
its quaint peculiarity.

There is a proverb that "one man may take a horse to the water, but
twenty cannot compel him to drink." Though this proverb may hold good
of an English horse, it has no significance when applied to an African
dromedary. Proof: our adventurers saw the owner of each camel bring his
animal to the edge of the pool; but instead of permitting the thirsty
creat