66 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



but if he wishes to move rapidly along the ground he will 

 gallop on all fours, the fingers being bent and the backs of 

 the second joints being applied to the surface, and being 

 provided with hard pads of toughened skin. The favourite 

 mode of progression of the anthropoid apes is however in 

 the trees, swinging themselves from branch to branch, both 

 hands and feet being prehensile or fitted for grasping. In 

 all anthropoid apes the arm is very much longer in propor- 

 tion than in man, in whom the middle ringer reaches to 

 the middle of the thigh. In the gorilla the fingers reach 

 the knees ; in the chimpanzee somewhat further; in the 

 orang they reach to the ankle ; and in some gibbons 

 the palm may be applied to the ground while the body is 

 as upright as is possible to the ape. And with regard to 

 the upright position it is a curious and interesting fact 

 that, according to certain French anatomists, the thigh- 

 bones of some of the earliest known men, those found 

 with the remains of extinct animals at Spy in the pro- 

 vince of Namur, indicate that these ancient folk could 

 not assume a perfectly erect position. Even in a very 

 little baby child, round-backed as a chimpanzee, you will 

 find that the leg will not quite straighten ; while the 

 soles of the feet turn markedly inwards as they do in 

 anthropoid apes. The legs are, moreover, relatively to the 

 length of the arms, much shorter than in the grown-up 

 man or woman. And you cannot look at Sally or any 

 man-like ape without noticing that not only are the arms 

 disproportionately long, but the legs are to almost the 

 same degree (though this is more marked in the orang) too 

 short. So that here again the ape preserves throughout 

 life a character which is present in the child but which the 

 man outgrows. 



I should weary you if I were to enter critically into the 

 likenesses and differences in structure between Sally and 



