DOWN THE RIVER. 247 



to his old conning tower on the big limb. It did 

 not take him quite so long to get there, for he 

 had already scouted out the trail. And close at 

 his heels followed two other monkeys ! They 

 crawled where he crawled; they crouched 

 where he crouched ; they hid where he hid ; 

 they flattened themselves out by him on the big 

 limb, and all three of them passed the afternoon 

 gazing down on the strange and fascinating things 

 below. Whether these newcomers were part of 

 the first one's family out for a treat, or whether 

 they were Cook's Tourists of the Jungle in charge 

 of my friend's competence as a guide, I do not 

 know. 



Farther down the river F. and I stopped for 

 some time to watch the crossing of forty-odd of 

 the little blue monkeys. The whole band clam- 

 bered to near the top of a tall tree growing by the 

 water's edge. There, one by one, they ran out 

 on a straight overhanging limb and cast them- 

 selves into space. On the opposite bank of the 

 river, and leaning well out, grew a small springy 

 bush. Each monkey landed smash in the middle 

 of this, clasped it with all four hands, swayed 

 alarmingly, recovered, and scampered ashore. 

 It was rather a nice problem in ballistics this, 

 for a mistake in calculation of a foot in distance 



