The Wonders of the Jungle Volume I Part 12

_Each Animal has the Gift he Needs Most_

So, you understand, the deer can _hear_ farther and _smell_ farther; but the tiger can _see_ farther.

And that is so because it is a wonderful rule in the jungle that _each animal has the gift that he needs most_.

But can you think why the tiger _needs_ to see farther, and why the deer _needs_ to hear farther and smell farther? I shall tell you.

The tiger is the catcher, and the deer is the one that is caught. So the tiger tries to get to the deer, and the deer tries to run _from_ the tiger.

But to get to the deer, it would be no use to the tiger if he could only smell or hear the deer, for then he would only know that the deer was _somewhere_ near, but could not find the exact spot; and to catch the deer the tiger must know exactly where the deer is. So the best way for him to know that is to _see_ the deer.

But for the deer himself, all that he needs to know is that a tiger is somewhere near. So it is quite enough for him to know from which side the tiger is coming, by just smelling him or hearing him. Then the deer can run the other way at once. He does not want to see the tiger at all!

So, you understand, the tiger's best gift is to be able to see the deer; and the deer's best gift is to be able to smell and hear the tiger.

But then, you may ask, if the deer can always run away long before the tiger can get at him, does a tiger never catch a deer?

Yes, a tiger does catch a deer once in a while, if the deer happens to make a mistake! And the deer can make only one mistake like that in his life, because after the first he gets eaten!

So, you may be sure, the deer tries very hard never to make even that one mistake.

And what is that one mistake? It is to run straight into the jaws of the tiger! It may just happen that when the deer hears the tiger coming, he does not listen quite carefully, and so he does not know which way the sound is coming. Then, in running away, the deer may happen to go just the wrong way--and fall into the tiger's jaws.

Or else it may happen that the deer is so frightened that he loses his head, as it were, and goes just any way--and by bad luck chooses the wrong way, and falls into the tiger's jaws.

But I must tell you that, although the tiger tries very hard to eat the deer, _the deer tries still harder not to be eaten!_ Why? Because if the tiger does not catch the deer for to-day's dinner, he can still catch some other animal for tomorrow's breakfast, even if he goes hungry to-night. But if the deer once gets eaten, there is no to-morrow for, him at all! The tiger is only trying _to get a meal_, but the deer is trying _to save his life_. That is why the deer nearly always gets away from the tiger--because he is trying harder than the tiger.

So the tiger does not get deer to eat much oftener than most children get roast turkey. The tiger lives mostly on pork, for the wild pigs of the jungle are such careless animals, as I have told you before. Now and again the tiger gets mutton also, for the wild sheep are silly creatures, like other kinds of sheep. In the same way the tiger sometimes catches a wild goat.

The tiger would really get deer to eat a little oftener than he actually does if it were not that the deer has two other gifts by which he can escape from the tiger at the last minute. Those two gifts are his _quickness in getting started_, and his _speed in running_.

So, even if the deer makes a mistake and runs toward the tiger, he can still escape from the tiger if he finds out his mistake in time.

For, as you saw at the midnight pool, the deer may be drinking quietly, when he hears or smells a tiger. Then the deer can leap at once and get away, before the tiger can leap. Or it may happen that the deer is trying to escape from a tiger and has run to within twenty yards of the tiger, when he finds out his mistake. Then the deer can turn _at once_ and leap sideways to get out of the tiger's reach. The deer is so quick that he can turn aside without stopping, and keep on running.

Then after that, once he has turned away from the tiger, the tiger can never catch him. For the deer can run ever so much faster than the tiger.

In fact, the deer or the antelope is the fastest animal in the world, except one other. About that other animal I shall tell you some wonderful things in the next book. But among all animals I have told you about in this book the deer is the fastest.

"But how do people know that the deer can run faster than other animals?" you may ask. "Has anyone had a race between different animals?"

Yes, some people did that in England a few years ago. They took the fastest racehorse in the country, and ran a race between him and the fastest greyhound; and the greyhound beat the horse in the race. Then they took that greyhound, and ran a race between him and an English deer; and the deer beat the greyhound in the race. So, you see, the deer was faster than the greyhound, and the greyhound was faster than the horse! So the deer was the fastest of the three.

And the deer that lives in the jungle is even faster than the English deer. Why? Because the English deer lives in peaceful glades and forests, and has no other animal trying to catch and eat him; so he does not try to be as fast as he could be. But the deer that lives in the jungle has to try very hard all the time to be as fast as he can be, or else he would be eaten by the tiger! And, as you must know, _we can do the best in anything when we try the hardest_.

So, all kinds of wild deer in the jungle have been trying their hardest to run as fast as they can. And as their fathers and grandfathers have been trying to do that, the wild deer to-day have become the fastest runners among all the animals I have told you about.

CHAPTER XI

The Camel

The _camel_ has very little to do with the kind of jungle I have been telling you about; but he has much to do with the _desert_. A desert is another kind of wild place. As I told you before, jungle means any wild place; but usually, of course, there are lots of trees and bushes and thickets in it. But we call the wild place a desert when trees and bushes and thickets will not grow there, because the ground is all covered with _sand_. In the desert there is nothing but sand all over the ground, and not a single tree or a tiny blade of gra.s.s anywhere, as far as you can see.

And that is the place where camels can do some very wonderful things, as I shall now tell you. The camels do not actually live in the desert all the time, but in countries quite near there.

First I must tell you that there is only one country to-day, called Central Asia, where camels are still found wild. In all other places they are not wild any more, for in those countries people have lived for many thousand years; so the people caught all the camels once upon a time, and tamed them.

Since that time the camels have been used by people in those countries for their work, just as we use horses here; and rich people in those countries count their wealth by the number of camels they have. Just as we say here that a rich man has a million dollars, or two millions, or three millions, so in those countries a man is thought to be rich who has one thousand camels, or two thousand, or three thousand.

It was just the same in those countries in olden times. You have read in your Bible history that Job was once a rich man, as he owned thousands of camels.

You will see from the pictures facing page 128 that there are two kinds of camels; one kind has a huge hump on the middle of his back; and the other kind has two humps, with a gap between. The _One-Hump camel_ is called an _Arabian camel_, or a _dromedary_. Once upon a time he lived in the country called Arabia; that is the country from where you get your lovely old stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin. But now the One-Hump camel also lives in other countries near there. These are all very hot countries, with many miles of desert here and there.

The _Two-Humps camel_ is called a _Bactrian camel_, as he lives in a country which was once called Bactria. That country also has many deserts, like Arabia; but as it is far to the north of Arabia, it is very cold in winter, and the snow then lies very thick on the ground.

So try and remember this:

The One-Hump camel lives in a country where there are many miles of desert, and where it is very hot almost the whole year. So the One-Hump camel has to guard himself only from the _hot burning sand_.

The Two-Humps camel lives in a country where there are also many miles of desert, but where it is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. So the Two-Humps camel has to guard himself from the _hot burning sand in the summer_, and from the _cold and snow in the winter_.

The Two-Humps camel has in winter a coat of long, s.h.a.ggy hair on his back to guard him from the cold; and in summer the s.h.a.ggy hair comes off his back, just as if he were to cast off his thick coat. But the One-Hump camel has only short hair, as the country is too hot all the time to need a thick coat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bactrian Camel--with Two Humps]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Arabian Camel--with One Hump]

Now I must tell you how camels are used. First, they carry goods for trade. In those countries there are hardly any railroads, so the merchants carry their packages on camels. Of course they could not put a package right on a camel's hump, as it would fall off; so they always join two packages together with a band or belt, and sling the band across the camel's back, so that there is a package on each side of the camel.

When a One-Hump camel is used, the band or belt has two parts, like a loop; and the loop rests over the hump, so that the band cannot slip backward or forward. When a Two-Humps camel is used, the band of course rests in the gap between the two humps, so that it cannot slip at all; and then the two packages can be made very big. That is why people like the Two-Humps camel better for carrying goods, and like the One-Hump camel better for riding. But in some places the One-Hump camel is used both for riding and for carrying goods.

In this way merchants carry their goods for many hundred miles across desert and country. Then sometimes they come to the sea and send the goods in s.h.i.+ps to different countries. That is how you get many of the figs, dates, and grapes you eat; so the next time you eat them, think of the patient camel that brought them for you across the desert. That is why the camel is called the _s.h.i.+p of the Desert_.

The beautiful carpets and rugs and shawls which you see in rich homes have also been brought by the patient camels; and some of the lovely vases and ornaments that rich people have were also carried by camels.

And not only across the desert, but even over ordinary land camels carry these goods. The camel is such a large animal that he can carry packages as heavy as four men.

Of course when he carries such a heavy load, he cannot go any faster than a man's walk; but the camel can keep on walking all day, with just a short rest once in a while. Those used for riding cannot run as fast as a horse, but they can keep on running at a steady trot much longer than a horse, and then after a short rest can start running again. So by the end of the day a camel can run twice as far as a horse, and sometimes still farther.

_The Camel's Wonderful Gifts_

Now I am going to tell you of the most wonderful things a camel can do.

First, I must tell you that no other animal could cross a desert at all. To begin with, if such an animal as a horse tried to walk on the sand, his hoofs would sink into the sand up to the ankles, and it would be hard work for him to go even a mile. But a camel's foot is different. It has a _soft pad of muscles_ under it, just like a cus.h.i.+on; and when the camel walks or runs on the sand, the pad spreads out under his foot, and that gives him a firm hold on the sand in walking or running. So remember that the camel has padded feet.

I must tell you here that the feet of all animals are formed in the way they can best use, in the country in which they live. Those animals that have to walk on _hard ground_ have _hoofs_, and those that have to walk on _soft ground_ have _padded feet_. The elephant is the only animal that has to walk on hard ground, at least very often, and yet has padded feet. Can you tell why? Because of his huge weight!