h power of directing its course, or of propelling
itself through the water with much force. Indeed, it may rather be
said to float than to swim.

In point of speed it cannot approach the Arabian dromedary, although
it is little inferior to the ordinary camel of burden. About two and a
half miles per hour is the average pace at which a pair of Bactrian
camels will draw a load, varying in weight from three to four thousand
pounds; and if they travel over a well-made road, they can do their
thirty miles a day for many successive days. In countries, therefore,
which are adapted to its habits, the camel is far superior to any
other beast of burden, whether for draught or carriage.

One great advantage of the camel is, that its feet are so tough, that
they can pass over rough and stony places without suffering, and that
therefore the animal does not require the aid of shoes. In an ordinary
march, the constant attention to the shoeing of horses and cattle
entails great labor, much watchfulness, and often causes considerable
delay, so that the peculiar formation of the camel's foot, which
neither requires nor admits of an iron shoe, is of exceeding value in
a forced march. In some places a leathern shoe is fixed to the camel's
foot, but is really of little use.

[Illustration: THE CAMEL.]

The very worst time for the Bactrian camel is the beginning and end of
winter, when frost and thaw occur alternately. At such times of the
year the snow falls thickly, is partially melted in the daytime, and
at night freezes on the surface into a thin cake of ice. Through this
crust the feet of the camel break, and the animal cuts its legs
cruelly with the sharp edges of the broken ice.

For the cold weather itself this species of camel cares little,
passing its whole time in the open air, and feeding on the grass when
it is caked with the ice formed from the dew. Indeed, it bears a
severe winter better than either horse, ox, or sheep, and has been
observed to feed with apparent comfort when the thermometer had sunk
many degrees below zero. In some places--such as the country about
Lake Baikal--the camel is partially sheltered from the cold by a thick
woollen cloth, which is sewn over its body; but even in such cases its
owners do not trouble themselves to furnish it with food, leaving it
to forage for itself among shrubs and trees of higher ground, or among
the reeds and rushes that grow on marshy land and the banks of rivers.

Almost