Taking the medium as a standard, _i.e._ one wet, and one dry tent, the average burthen would be only 701lb., which will be found a greater load than any camels, setting apart perhaps one or two of extraordinary powers, which have come within my observation, could carry in a proper manner, so as to answer general purposes, when marching with a regiment.
The value of a camel varies according to size, form, age, condition, and disposition: supposing all those points to be mediocrity, from eighty, to a hundred and twenty, rupees may be taken as a standard; observing, that, where no military movement is in question, the prices are often lower, and that, in cases of emergency, they have been known to rise even so high as to four, five, and six, hundred rupees: but such, fortunately, is very rarely the case.
Most gentlemen keep two or three camels, for the purpose of carrying their tent, liquors, and cot. If on a moderate scale, two will generally prove competent to the work, but if the tent be large, the liquors and linen abundant, and the cot extensive, or on a heavy construction, a third camel will be necessary. In fact, I know not of worse policy, than that we too often see adopted, of burthening an animal with as much as it can stand under. When the moment of difficulty comes, as it rarely fails to do, infinite vexation, and an enormous encrease of expence, invariably follow. Hence, it will be found advisable, though the primary expence may be encreased, and the subsequent monthly charges be a trifle greater, always to retain three, in preference to two camels; unless the intended burthens be very compact, and not subject to accumulate a great addition of weight in wet weather.
The difference shewn to exist between tents, when wet, and when dry, according to the Company’s standard, ascertained by actual experiments, should prove a guide to all persons about to proceed on a march, so to proportion the loads imposed on their cattle as not to endanger their total failure. It should never be forgotten, that excoriations, however trivial in the first instance, speedily rankle into wounds, not simply painful, but generally trenching deeply on the immediate powers, as well as on the condition, of those useful dumb animals, which submit to the last moment to the will of their heedless employers.