# 35 Camels and Their Humps

Nature works in strange ways. Camels were given humps. Why? Humps provide a place to store food and water. Other animals store food and water differently. They use their tissues. These are all over their bodies. But camels have one special place. Their humps.

The Arabian camel lives mainly in the Sahara. It has one hump. There is a camel with two humps. It is the Bactrian. It lives in the Gobi Desert. That is in Asia. It is in Inner and Outer Mongolia. There is a camel's picture on a package of dates. That is a dromedary. It is a special camel. It is raised only for Army troops and racing. It can run 10 miles per hour. It can cover 100 miles in a day. In all these camels, the hump has one purpose. It stores food and water.

Camels can go for a week or more with no food or water. The hump doesn't carry plain water. But water is indeed stored there. Wait! What goes? Water or no water?

Here is the answer. The water is in the form of fat. On long marches, the camel makes water from it. How, you ask? Well, you've seen fat splutter in a frying pan. The spluttering is caused by water escaping from the fat. Something of this sort occurs inside the body of a camel. The fat breaks down. Water is released.

So the camel gets water from its hump. It also gets food from its hump. After a week or two, what happens? The hump gets smaller. After two weeks, the hump almost disappears. There is nothing left to form it. But by then it shouldn't matter. The long trip in the hot desert sands should be over.

# 35 駱駝與牠們的駝峰

大自然以奇特的方式運作。駱駝被賦予了駝峰。為什麼？駝峰提供了一個儲存食物和水的地方。其他動物以不同的方式儲存食物和水。牠們使用牠們的組織。這些組織遍布全身。但駱駝有一個特殊的地方。牠們的駝峰。

阿拉伯駱駝主要生活在撒哈拉沙漠。牠有一個駝峰。還有一種有兩個駝峰的駱駝。它是雙峰駝。牠生活在戈壁沙漠。那在亞洲。在內蒙古和外蒙古。一包椰棗上有一張駱駝的圖片。那是單峰駱駝。它是一種特殊的駱駝。它只為軍隊和賽跑而飼養。它每小時能跑10英里。一天能走100英里。在所有這些駱駝中，駝峰有一個目的。它儲存食物和水。

駱駝可以一周或更長時間不吃不喝。駝峰不攜帶普通的水。但水確實儲存在那裡。等等！怎麼回事？有水還是沒水？

答案是這樣。水以脂肪的形式存在。在長途行進中，駱駝從中製造水。怎麼製造，你問？嗯，你見過脂肪在煎鍋裡濺開吧。濺開是因為水從脂肪中逸出。類似的情況發生在駱駝體內。脂肪分解。水被釋放出來。

所以駱駝從駝峰中獲取水。牠也從駝峰中獲取食物。一兩週後，會發生什麼？駝峰變小了。兩週後，駝峰幾乎消失。沒有東西可以形成它了。但到那時應該沒關係了。在炎熱沙漠中的長途旅行應該結束了。