4 FEBRUARY 1905, Page 16

[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPRCTATOR.1

Sin,-:-Herodotus's description of the camel (mentioned in your issue of January 14th, p. 47) as having an extra pair of knees, though absurd enough, is not quite as preposterous as it would seem. The camel's peculiar, and to the unaccus- tomed rider exasperatingly complicated, method of lying down has given this impression to more than one observer. Compare Miss Edwards (" A Thousand Miles up the Nile," chap. 10) : "Now the lying-down and the getting-up of a camel are performances designed for the express purpose of

inflicting grievous bodily harm upon his rider He has a superfluous joint somewhere in his legs, and uses it to revenge himself upon mankind."—I am, Sir, &c., F. C.

Tom Bullough