178 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



all their energies to the solution of problems of this nature 

 (and their name is legion) before it becomes for ever too 

 late. 



After what has been said as to the necessity of actual 

 observation to determine the reason for the peculiar nasal 

 development of these monkeys, it would obviously be out 

 of place to attempt to solve the problem in any other way. 

 Attention may, however, be directed to the circumstance 

 that the chiru, or Tibetan antelope, has a remarkably 

 swollen and puffy nose. And although the saiga antelope, 

 of the plains of Central Russia, has an equally remarkable'^ 

 nasal development, yet it seems highly probable that in 

 the case of the chiru, at any rate, the enlarged size of the 

 nasal chamber and nostrils is correlated with the rarefied 

 atmosphere of the elevated plateau on which that ruminant 

 dwells. The snub-nosed monkeys, although living at a 

 considerably lower elevation than the chiru, are yet " well 

 up in the world " ; and since the shape of the nose in the 

 former would appear designed to admit the passage of as 

 much air as possible with the least impediment, it may 

 perhaps be suggested that the habitat has something to do 

 with the nose structure. As to the reason for the genesis 

 of the ungainly proboscis of the Bornean monkey, I have 

 not even the rudiment of a theory to offer my readers. 



