HUNTING CHIMPANZEES. 'J'J 



longing to a trader of Formosa that really was remark- 

 ably well taught and intelligent. After that fatal voyage 

 lip the Niger, when I left two thirds of my party buried 

 on its banks, I spent nearly two months with this trader, 

 a Swiss by birth, who had spent years on the African 

 coast. It was here that I made the acquaintance of 

 Master Jack, a fine specimen of his race, — tall, with, 

 silky black hair, dashed with a little white on his belly, 

 and with a bare, shiny face that seemed always well 

 shaven. Although the chimpanzee generally finds an 

 upright position uncomfortable and seldom indulges in 

 it. Jack had acquired the accomplishment of standing 

 and walking ; and his spinal column had finally devel- 

 oped on that axis until he preferred a vertical position 

 to that usually assumed by his race. His ears were large 

 but well formed, his forehead arched and high, and his 

 hands very like a man's, and with nails carefully trimmed 

 by his native keeper, who was at once his original cap- 

 tor and teacher. Like all well brought-up chimpanzees, 

 Master Jack had several domestic accomplishments. He 

 waited at table like a born butler, would pour you wine 

 or water at a word, carry the empty plates away, and 

 all with an amusing, evident enjoyment of his work 

 and an address and silence that most of the heavy-footed 

 native waiters would have done well to imitate. 



There was one duty, however, that it would not do 

 to trust to him, — that of bringing in the fruit at dessert. 

 His training had rather added to than diminished his 



