42 THE MAN-LIKE APES I 



Mr. Martin (I. c. p. 430) has given so excellent 

 and graphic an account of the movements of a 

 Hylobates agilis, living in the Zoological Gardens, 

 in 1840, that I will quote it in full : 



"It is almost impossible to convey in words an idea of the 

 quickness and graceful address of her movements : they may 

 indeed be termed aerial, as she seems merely to touch in her 

 progress the branches among which she exhibits her evolu- 

 tions. In these feats her hands and arms are the sole organs 

 of locomotion ; her body hanging as if suspended by a rope, 

 sustained by one hand (the right for example), she launches 

 herself, by an energetic movement, to a distant branch, 

 which she catches with the left hand ; but her hold is less 

 than momentary : the impulse for the next launch is ac- 

 quired : the branch then aimed at is attained by the right 

 hand again and quitted instantaneously, and so on in 

 alternate succession. In this manner spaces of twelve and 

 eighteen feet are cleared, with the greatest ease and un- 

 interruptedly, for hours together, without the slightest 

 appearance of fatigue being manifested ; and it is evident 

 that if more space could be allowed, distances very greatly 

 exceeding eighteen feet would be as easily cleared ; so that 

 Duvaucel's assertion that he had seen these animals launch 

 themselves from one branch to another, forty feet asunder, 

 startling as it is, may be well credited. Sometimes, on 

 . seizing a branch in her progress, she will throw herself, 

 by the power of one arm only, completely round it, making 

 a revolution with such rapidity as almost to deceive the eye, 

 and continue her progress with undimiriished velocity. It is 

 singular to observe how suddenly this Gibbon can stop, 

 when the impetus given by the rapidity and distance of her 

 swinging leaps would seem to require a gradual abatement of 

 her movements. In the very midst of her flight a branch is 

 seized, the body raised, and she is seen, as if by magic, 

 quietly seated on it, grasping it with her feet. As suddenly 

 she again throws herself into action. 



