42 THE MAX-LIKE APES. I 



hibits her evolutions. In these feats her hands and arms 

 are the sole organs of locomotion; her body hanging as if 

 suspended by a rope, sustained by one hand (the right for 

 example), she launches herself, by an energetic movement, 

 to a distant branch, which she catches with the left hand ; 

 but her hold is less than momentary: the impulse for the 

 next launch is acquired: the branch then aimed at is 

 attained by the right hand again and quitted instantane- 

 ously, and so on in alternate succession. In this manner 

 spaces of twelve and eighteen feet are cleared, with the 

 greatest ease and uninterruptedly, for hours together, 

 without the slightest appearance of fatigue being mani- 

 fested; and it is evident that if more space could be al- 

 lowed, distances very greatly exceeding eighteen feet 

 would be as easily cleared; so that DuvauceFs assertion 

 that he had seen these animals launch themselves from 

 one branch to another, forty feet asunder, startling as it 

 is, may be well credited. Sometimes, on seizing a branch 

 in her progress, she will throw herself, by the power of 

 one arm only, completely round it, making a revolution 

 with such rapidity as almost to deceive the eye, and con- 

 tinue her progress with undiminished velocity. It is sin- 

 gular to observe how suddenly this Gibbon can stop, when 

 the impetus given by the rapidity and distance of her 

 swinging leaps would seem to require a gradual abate- 

 ment of her movements. In the very midst of her flight 

 a branch is seized, the body raised, and she is seen, as if 

 by magic, quietly seated on it, grasping it with her feet. 

 As suddenly she again throws herself into action. 



" The following facts will convey some notion of her 

 dexterity and quickness. A live bird was let loose in her 

 apartment ; she marked its flight, made a long swing to a 

 distant branch, caught the bird with one hand in her pas- 

 sage, and attained the branch with her other hand; her 

 aim, both at the bird and at the branch, being as success- 

 ful as if one object only had engaged her attention. It 



