The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, and the Arabs, in crossing the Nile with camels, are accustomed to attach two bags on the sides of the camel’s bodies that is skins in the form shown underneath.
In these four meshes of the net the camels for baggage place their feet.
[Footnote: Unfortunately both the sketches which accompany this passage are too much effaced to be reproduced. The upper represents the two sacks joined by ropes, as here described, the other shows four camels with riders swimming through a river.]
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.