ould watch for hours his ceaseless
tread and unerring path. Carrying his head low, forward, and surveying
everything with his black brilliant eye, he marches resolutely forward,
and quickens his pace at the slightest cheer of the rider. He is too
intelligent and docile for a bridle; besides, he lives on the march, and
with a sudden sweep of the neck will seize, without stopping, the
smallest straw. When the day's march is over, he passes the night in
looking for food, with scarcely an hour to repose his limbs, and less
than that for sleep. He closes the eye fitfully, the smallest noise will
awake him. When lying down for rest, every part of the body is
supported; his neck and head lie lightly along the sand, a broad plate
of bone under the breast takes the weight off his deep chest, and his
long legs lay folded under him, supporting his sides like a ship in a
cradle."

A CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY MEASURES THE PROGRESS OF "THE SHIP OF THE
DESERT."

The dromedary has long and deservedly been called "the Ship of the
Desert." A very gallant captain in the Royal Navy, the late Captain
William Peel, son of the Prime Minister, calculated its rate of motion
much after the manner in which he might have measured the path of his
ship. He writes[254]--"In crossing the Nubian Desert I paid constant
attention to the march of the camels, hoping it may be of some service
hereafter in determining our position. The number of strides in a minute
with the same foot varied very little, only from 37 to 39, and 38 was
the average; but the length of the stride was more uncertain, varying
from 6 feet 6 to 7 feet 6. As we were always urging the camels, who
seemed, like ourselves, to know the necessity of pushing on across that
fearful tract, I took 7 feet as the average. These figures give a speed
of 2.62 geographical miles per hour, or exactly three English miles,
which may be considered as the highest speed that camels lightly loaded
can keep up on a journey. In general, it will not be more than two and a
half English miles. My dromedary was one of the tallest, and the seat of
the saddle was 6 feet 6 above the ground."

LORD METCALFE ON A CAMEL WHEN A BOY.

Charles Metcalfe, "first and last Lord Metcalfe," to whose care were
successively intrusted the three greatest dependencies of the British
crown, India, Jamaica, and Canada, and who died in 1846, was sent to
Eton when eleven years old. His biographer relates,[255] that "it is on
re