DROMEDARY EXPRESS"

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 23, 27 January 1934, Page 10

DROMEDARY EXPRESS"

GOLD TRAIL OF THE SIXTIES

A writer in the. Calgary "Herald," Canada, has recalled tho days when camels were to be seen on the Cariboo gold trail in British Columbia. It was in 1863 that this "Dromedary Express" was a going concern, but it was many years later before the last of the camels ceased to startle the unsuspecting prospector or terrorise horses and mules. In the mad rush to reach the Cariboo goldfields an ingenious pioneer thought of camels. Somewhere in tho United States he acquired twenty-ono of them, and the celebrated "Ship of tho Desert" became overnight a crcaturo of mountain trails. They.had to adapt themselves to mud and rocky, inclines and to a severe climate which gave them a growth of hair unknown in their inoro familiar environment.

The camels,'however, were not a success. Curiously, this was through no fault of their own, but because they threw into a panic the inulo packtrains which frequented the trail. No mule was willing to remain in tho vicinity when a camel was ■ seen or scentetl, and there were threats of lawsuits, appeals to the authorities, and much trouble. Finally the camel express went out of business. Most of the animals were sent back to the United States, but a fnw were turned looso' to enjoy their freedom, into « ripe old age. .^^^