396 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is due exceptionally to uvular relaxation, and it is more frequently a 

 bad habit -which it is difficult for the possessor to recognize or to cor- 

 rect. Nasal intonation also has unfortunately grown to be an emo- 

 tional modulation among Americans who unwittingly employ it in 

 moments of embarrassment or indecision, and also when expressing 

 religious emotion and various other feelings. Fortunately Americans 

 are relatively free from the various kinds of stammering and affected 

 hesitancy of speech so often heard in England. 



The practical conclusions to be drawn from all of the above facts 

 are briefly as follows : 



1. That in keeping with the logic of past events in other languages 

 American English, in a new physical and moral environment, has un- 

 dergone a radical modification of vocal type. 



2. That Americans can not be expected to conform to British 

 customs so far as mere emphasis, inflections, and timbre of voice are 

 concerned. 



3. There are cogent reasons for ciTorts to keep the fundamental 

 sounds of the language alike in the two countries, and it is the duty of 

 all educated persons to correct such provincial or unauthorized utter- 

 ances of the vowel-sounds as have been here described, and to strive 

 to preserve the purity of the mother-tongue. If this article shall serve 

 to awaken an interest in this important subject, or to aid any in its 

 study its object will have been fulfilled. 



THE MONKEYS OF DUTCH GUIANA. 



By august KAPPLER. 



THERE are eight species of apes in Dutch Guiana. The most con- 

 spicuous of them is the howling ape {Mycetes se?iiculus), which is 

 also one of the best-known and largest of the race. It is called a 

 baboon in the colony, alouatte by the Caribs, and itoli by the Aro- 

 waks. When standing up it is about three feet high, and weighs about 

 twenty pounds. It lives in both the coast-regions and the interior, 

 and eats fruits, leaves, and buds. Its big, scantily-haired belly, the 

 thick, tawny skin of its back, passing into a purple-brown at the back 

 of the head and the feet ; its black face, with its strong set of teeth, 

 and the prominence under its neck, covered with a long yellow beard, 

 altogether make it one of the ugliest apes of tropical America. It 

 lives in small troops of rarely more than twelve individuals, among 

 which is always to be found an old, full-grown male, which takes a 

 higher place on the tree than the others, and leads the lugubrious con- 

 cert by which these apes are so broadly distinguished from other species. 

 The windpipe of the male is much stronger and more complicated than 

 that of any of the other apes, and is connected with a vocal apparatus 



