APE. 



163 



tions of a true thumb ; but often more resembles the 

 callous pad, which forms a point of resistance against 

 the fingers in several other climbing animals. The 

 anterior extremities are long, but much longer in 

 some of the species than in others ; the fingers are 

 also long, the bones of some of the phalanges are 

 often curved toward the palms, and the muscular 

 power in grasping or pulling is much greater than, 

 from the size of the animal or of the parts, one would 

 be led to suppose. Similar grasping powers, in pro- 

 portion to their size, are, however, common to all the 

 quudrumana, and to all climbing animals. The joints 

 of the elbows, shoulders, and wrists, also admit of 

 more motion than in man, and the grasping power of 

 the fingers can be strongly exerted with the arm in 

 many more positions, especially positions that are 

 wide or outwards. The whole structure of the an- 

 terior extremities indicates that they are instruments 

 for grasping in all directions round the animal, and 

 to the greatest distance possible. 



The posterior extremities are proportionally much 

 shorter, but they admit of perhaps a greater range of 

 motion, especially at the hip and ankle joints. The 

 knee joints are naturally what are called " bowed," 

 or bent outwards ; but such is the motion of the hip 

 joint that the thighs can be plaited across each other, 

 or they can be widely extended, and at the same 

 time rolled so far outwards that the toes (or fingers 

 rather) are behind the line of the heels. The ankle 

 joint is a ball and socket, only its motion is nearly 

 confined to the inner semicircle. The sole of the 

 foot cannot be turned outwards, and in some of the 

 species it is, as in the sloths, not capable of being 

 planted level on the ground ; but it can turn inward 

 till it is above the natural plane, backward till it is 

 beyond the line of the leg, and upward till the whole 

 upper part of the foot bears against the shin. The 

 thumb upon these is usually short, articulated far 

 behind the basal phalanx of the toes, and when not 

 in action standing nearly at right angles to the axis 

 of the foot. The toes of these extremities generally 

 have the bones of the phalanges more or less bent; 

 and in some of the species the first and second are 

 united together, as if to give greater steadiness in 

 grasping. The toes on the hind feet, even when 

 they are all free, do not admit of separate motions ; 

 arid that those of the fore feet can so move is alleged 

 rather than proved. They cannot spread out their 

 hands as man does, or even as is done by dogs and 

 various other digitigrade animals. 



Both anterior and posterior extremities are there- 

 fore grasping instruments, and proportionally ill 

 adapted for walking ; and though, where they do 

 walk, some of them generally, and all of them occa- 

 sionally, walk on the hind extremities only, they are 

 unsteady and hobbling, and those species which are 

 understood to be the best climbers, have the anterior 

 extremities always ready to balance, support, or assist 

 them as they wriggle along. 



Apes, though any thing but handsome to look at 

 are still interesting animals, both on account of the 

 'peculiarity of their structure, and of all that has beei 

 said about their resemblance to man ; and therefore 

 it is to be regretted that little is known of their habits 

 in their native localities. 



They are confined to the eastern continent and it 

 islands, and their haunts, even there, are limited an< 

 peculiar. One species only has been hitherto ob 

 served in Africa ; and the others are confined to tli< 



outh-east of Asia to Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and 



ome of the other islands, but probably they extend 



o those portions of the Eastern or Malay peninsula 



which have a climate similar to that of the islands. 



They are not found in any of those parts which have 



lie broad extremes of tropical climate, long droughts 



Iternating with heavy rains. This appears to be the 



ase both in Asia and in Africa, and furnishes us with, 



at least, one little point in their natural history : they 



are not migrants, but remain in the same locality all 



he year round, and that locality must, of course, bo 



uch as to supply them with a constant succession of 



ood. 



The animals of the American continent to which 

 hey bear the greatest analogy in their habits are the 

 loths ; but the manners and food of the two differ, 

 o that the climate, or, which is the same thing, the 

 iCason, must differ in proportion. The sloths are 

 organised for horizontal locomotion along the twig?, 

 with their backs underneath, and they feed on the 

 eaves above them, and repose hanging suspended 

 under the branches ; they cannot walk, sit, run, or 

 ie upon the ground with comfort ; the action of their 

 extremities is powerful only when exerted towards 

 lie mesial line of the body. The apes, on the other 

 land, grasp all round them ; they sit, they lie, and 

 ;hey can walk a little some of them tolerably well. 

 They are, therefore, not adapttd for grazing on the 

 eaves of trees as the sloths do, though admirably so 

 :br finding their way from branch to branch, and 

 gathering fruits. 



And the localities which the apes inhabit are 

 exactly those in which there are always fruits upon 

 the trees ; where the same tree brings forward a suc- 

 ession of crops, and where the productive season 

 of one species falls so well upon the unproductive 

 season' of another, that there is an abundant supply 

 of food all the year round. 



In this way, the ape, like the sloth, and indeed 

 most localised animals, which naturally inhabit parti- 

 cular districts of the world only, becomes a key to 

 the general character of those places where it is 

 found ; such places are never burnt up by tropical 

 droughts, neither are they, for any length of time at 

 least, deluged by tropical rains, because both of these 

 are incompatible with perpetual fruitage. The Orien- 

 tal islands, to which the greater part of the apes are 

 generally, if not exclusively, confined, are nearly out 

 of the range of the monsoons, which are taken in 

 flank by the trade winds of the Pacific, so that they 

 have a wonderful uniformity of climate, and part of 

 the Malay peninsula has so much the same character, 

 that the fruits of the Molucca islands are found in the 

 woods of that portion of the coast which was ceded to 

 the East India Company at the close of the Burmese 

 war. One species of ape, the chimpansee, has been 

 found in the woods of Africa, and from near the 

 mouth of the Gambia to Angola, or along all that part 

 of the coast which has permanent foliage and fruit ; 

 but most abundantly in the lower parts of the Congo 

 and the Niger. From the comparative shortness of 

 its arms, and its greater facility in walking, it is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that this species climbs less, or u.t 

 all events travels more, than the long-armed ones, 

 which are such bad walkers. Hence it is probable thut 

 the permanently fertile zone of tropical Africa is 

 inferior in productiveness to the Oriental isles. 



But still it is by no means an unimportant point to 

 ascertain that there is in Africa, ueur the parallel of 

 S 2 



