THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ORDER. 19 



Soudan. Fields and gardens especially suffer ; neither lock nor bolt, 

 neither hedge nor wall can keep out the plunderers, who destroy much 

 more than they consume. To an unconcerned spectator, the sight of an 

 incursion of apes is an amusing spectacle. They run, they leap, they 

 climb, they swim, they perform in the branches of the trees astounding 

 feats of agility and acrobatic skill. Some seem to fly from bough to 

 bough ; a space of six or seven yards across is a mere trifle ; they will 

 drop ten feet or more perpendicularly to a branch ; it bends with the 

 weight, and as it springs back again, the ape lets go and is shot off" by 

 the recoil like an arrow from the bow. Every climbmg plant is a ladder, 

 every tree is a high-road. Head foremost, tail foremost, up and down 

 they go as if on solid ground. If a branch breaks, they lay hold of 

 another ; if their hands fail, their hand-like feet succeed, or if both fail 

 to grasp, the apes of this continent hold on by their tails. The American 

 monkeys make the tail a fifth hand, or rather their first, most-used hand ; 

 they hang by it, they rock themselves by it, they swing by it; their tail 

 is their hammock when they take their noon-day sleep. 



This agility and grace of motion are confined to their actions when 

 climbing ; their walk is awkward ; even the largest manlike apes can 

 scarcely be said to walk; some put down the whole soles of their feet, 

 others support themselves on the knuckles of the hand and swing the 

 body forward in such a fashion that the feet come between the hands. 

 This incapacity of attaining to a walk such as man has, arises partly from 

 the fact that in the ape the orifice by which the spinal cord enters the 

 skull is set very far back, thus overbalancing the body, partly from the 

 conformation of the hind feet. These, as we have said, are like hands, 

 and the outstretched, separate thumb cannot furnish such a firm support 

 for the body as the great toe does, especially as the creature usually 

 walks on the outside of its foot. The Gorilla goes upright most easily, 

 and the Tschego shares this faculty. Many other species can maintain 

 an upright position for a time, but they sink down, when no longer able 

 to balance themselves, on their fore-limbs ; when pursued by the hunter, 

 or pursuing their own foes, they move on all-fours. 



Some tribes of apes swim excellently, others sink like lead ; the latter 

 have a great dread of water. Many travelers describe how the Brazilian 

 monkeys form an ingenious bridge over rivers. A number of them climb 

 to a high branch on a tree on the bank of the river they wish to cross. 

 One mnnkev grasps the branch with his tail, and seizes with his hands 



