NEW BOOK RELATES ODD VENTURE OF CONGRESS

A time when the United States Government took a "flyer" in camels, only to have their plans for using the beasts for transportation spoiled by the completion of the transcontinental railroad, is the story told by "Uncle Sam's Camels", a book by L. B. Lesley, which comes out in November from the Harvard University Press.

The instance which is dealt with in the volume concerns the administration of President Pierce, in 1855, when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War. The Great American Desert was at that time a sizable obstacle in the way of transportation from the west to the east. Davis had, as Senator from Mississippi, conceived of the idea of inaugurating a camel route across the desert in order to relieve the situation, and when he became Secretary of War he secured an appropriation of $30,000 from Congress to carry out his scheme.

The appropriation was made in 1855, and in that year a ship was outfitted for the voyage and sent in search of camels. Ten were purchased on this trip, three in Tunis and seven in Smyrna, and duly brought back to serve as pack animals in the American Desert.

Upon their arrival in this country, however, it was discovered that the transcontinental railroad had been almost finished, by crossing the mountain peaks of the Rockies. The camels were of no value, and Uncle Sam had, by this time, no less than 34 of the animals on his hands.