IN AFRICAN FOREST AND JUNGLE 



branch to branch, travelling with very great speed. 

 The branch upon which they alighted bent sometimes 

 ten and fifteen feet under their weight, and rebounded 

 with great force after they had sprung to another. 

 Sometimes they were high up in the tree-tops. Then 

 they descended, to go up higher again. They never 

 sprang upon a branch that could not rebound, and it 

 was during the rebound that they leaped to another, 

 never making a mistake. Their eyes were too quick 

 to miss their mark. They calculated the distance 

 they could spring with marvellous accuracy. 



They followed their leader, a big fellow, in quick 

 succession and in silence, and seemed to go four or 

 five abreast. They used chiefly their arms to grasp 

 the branches upon which they alighted and their legs 

 to support themselves. They were so "quick in their 

 motion that my eyes often could not follow the move- 

 ment of their limbs. The end of branches often 

 struck against their faces, but apparently did them no 

 harm, as they swung in the same direction. So they 

 went forward, leaving behind them branches of the 

 trees still swaying for quite a while, filling the forest 

 with their tremor. 



They were travelling parallel with the hunting- 

 path, and seemed to go at the rate of fifteen miles or 

 more an hour. Soon they were out of my sight. 



140 



