84 THE COAITA. 
almost serve as asketch of the other. Each is gifted with discriminating faculty of touch, 
and therefore able to pick up any small object; while at the same time its muscular 
powers are so great, that it can endure severe and prolonged exertion. 
The probosei is of the elephant can seize a tree-branch and tear it from its parent 
trunk. The spider monkey has no such gigantic streneth, but it can sling itself from a 
bough by its tail, and remain suspended for almost any length of time. There is a 
beautiful formation of the tail of this creature, by means of which the grasp of that 
member retains its hold even after the death of the owner. If : spider monkey is mortally 
wounded, and not killed outright, it curls its tail round a branch, and thus suspended 
yields wp its life. The tail does not lose its erasp when the ie has departed ; and the 
dead monkey hangs with its head downwards for days, until decomposition sets in and 
the rigid muscles are relaxed. 
We may here trace another curious analogy between this automatic contraction of the 
tail, and the well-known structure by which a bird is enabled to hold itself on its perch 
during sleep. If the spider monkey’s tail be drawn out till it is straightened, the tip 
immediately curls round, and remains so until the member is suffered to return to its 
usual curve. Perhaps one reason for this provision may be, that it is for the purpose of 
retaining the animal in its arboreal residence, and euarding it against a fall. 
Still, it is a curious fact, and cannot be wholly accounted for on those grounds ; for 
the monkeys of the Old World, although not gifted with prehensile tails, are quite as 
arboreal as their brethren of the New, and consequently as lable to Eutychian casualties. 
It may be remarked, en passant, that there are Preacher Monkeys in America, and conse- 
quently that an especial provision against such misfortunes may be more requisite in 
Brazil than in Africa. 
In their native country, the spider monkeys may be seen in great profusion, swinging 
from the tree-branches in groups, like bunches of enormous fruits. 
They are very lazy animals, and will sit, swing, or recline for hours in the strangest 
attitudes without moving a limb; just as if they were striving to emulate the Hindoo 
Fakirs in their motionless penances. Such a propensity is the more curious, because the 
sheht forms of the animals, their long and slender limbs, and above all, their wonderful 
tail, would lead us to anticipate the same singular swiftness and activity that are found 
in the gibbons. In the American monkeys, however, we do not find the capacious chest 
and thin flanks which mark out the character of the gibbons. 
Yet, when aroused by hunger or other sufficient motive, the spider monkeys can move 
fast enough ; and in such a manner, that nothing without wines can follow them. In 
their native land, the forests are so dense and so vast, that if it were not for the rivers 
which occasionally cut their path through the dark foliage, the monkeys could travel for 
hundreds of miles without once coming to the ground. 
Not that the monkeys care very much for a river, provided that the distance between 
the banks is not very great; and as they detest going into the water, they most in- 
geniously contrive to get over without wetting a hair, The manner in which they are 
said to achieve this feat of engineering is as follows. 
When a marching troop, often amounting to a hundred or more, arrives at the bank of 
a river, the principal body halts, while the oldest and most experienced of their band 
run forward, and carefully reconnoitre the locality. After mature deliberation they fix 
on some spot where the trees of the opposite banks incline riverwards, and approximate 
nearest to each other. 
tunning to the overhanging boughs, the most powerful monkeys twist their tails 
firmly round the branch, and permit themselves to hang with their heads downwards. 
Another monkey then slides down the body of the first, twines his tail tightly round his 
predecessor, and awaits his successor. In this way a long chain of monkeys 1 is gradually 
formed, until the last, who is always one of the strongest of the troop, is able to plant 
his paws on the eround. He then begins to push the “ground with his hands, so as to 
give the dependent chain a slight oscillating movement, which is increased until he is 
able to seize a branch on the opposite side of the river. 
Having so done, he draws himself gradually up the branches, until he finds one that 
