The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.

We extract the following article, with great pleasure, from the North American. The enterprising individual, alluded to, is, we believe, Capt. O'Brien. May his meritorious undertaking be crowned with success.

THE CAMEL

A Philadelphia gentleman who spent many years of his life in Africa, has formed the design of carrying a number of Camels into the Southern states by way of introducing the breed. He means to employ two vessels to bring them from the Mediterranean, which will consequently occasion him much expense. That he will meet the support and patronage of the wealthy and intelligent planters of the South cannot be doubted.

The Camel is the most useful to man of all the quadrupeds. He possesses the celerity of the horse, and can perform as much labor as the elephant, whilst he consumes only one twentieth of the quantity of food on which the latter subsists. The female affords milk longer than a cow; the young camel's flesh is wholesome and palatable; and the hair of this animal is finer and more valuable than the best sheep wool. A great author is of opinion, that he is equal in value and service to the horse, the ass, and the ox, with their powers combined. A camel will carry a burthen of from 600 to 1200 weight. His capacity to undergo fatigue is astonishing; whilst his food consists of the most worthless vegetables, brambles, thorns, &c. and from the particular structure of his stomach he can survive without water for many days. He begins to labor at 4 and lives 40 or 50 years.

It is supposed that he will thrive in the Southern divisions of our union, where his properties, adapted to the nature of the climate and country, will certainly render him invaluable. His hair, being annually renewed, will afford a material for manufacture highly desirable, and of more value than Merino wool.

The uncertainty whether the climate, to which it is proposed to carry him, will be found to agree with his habits and health, taken into view with the expense of the undertaking might well have deterred any individual from hazarding his own resources; whilst the public benefit to be derived might have induced the state legislatures to lay the burthen upon their treasuries. The individual, to whom we allude, possesses both a solid judgement and an enterprising spirit; and he will not, we believe, retard the experiment till such a resource can be opened to him. The liberality of the public, which has attended the attempt to introduce the Merino sheep, may, in the mean time, serve as an encouragement to expect the intervention of adequate assistance, should it prove necessary.