L K M U R. 



37 



the people of the new countries. Those of Mada- 

 gascar resisted (lie visits of Europeans at the first, and 

 they were found collected in large masses so as to be 

 formidable ; but now, while the natives have been 

 more consolidated, they seek the intercourse of 

 foreigners, and improve and also increase in numbers 

 from the stimulus of that intercourse. The natives 

 of Australia, on the other hand, though their inter- 

 course with Europeans has been more direct and 

 close, have not derived the same advantages from it. 

 That they are not without capacity, is proved by the 

 ftet, that many of the children have been very for- 

 ward in the schools ; but it has also happened that, 

 instead of being thereby attached to civilisation, they 

 have almost without exception gone back to the 

 woods, and relapsed into the habits of their fathers. 

 The character of many of the European inhabitants, 

 as being convicts, working in chains, or under very 

 severe laws, must no doubt have had a pretty strong 

 repulsive effect upon the natives of New Holland, 

 inasmuch as men could not be expected willingly to 

 give up a state of freedom, however precarious, in 

 order to join a nation, the one part of which com- 

 pelled the other to work in fetters, and under terror 

 of the whip. Thus, if we still have the natives of 

 New Holland, and more especially those of Van 

 Diemen's Island, whose characters are a little more 

 energetic, acting the characters of liers in wait in 

 the bush, and indiscriminate plunderers and mur- 

 derers, we, in a great measure, have ourselves to 

 thank for it, and it is impossible to say how much 

 this may have retarded the prosperity of our empire 

 in that part of the world. Yet still much must also 

 be owing to physical circumstances ; and the most 

 striking of these is the absence of handed animals, to 

 which the peculiar handed animals of Madagascar 

 present a very striking contrast, and would of them- 

 selves lead to the facts which we have pointed out, 

 both with regard to the general productions of the 

 country, and to its human inhabitants. 



The lemurs are among the most remarkable of the 

 Madagascar animals ; and though they resemble the 

 monkeys in some of their structural characters, there 

 are others in which they approximate more nearly to 

 the canine race. They are not, indeed, decidedly 

 carnivorous in the formation of their teeth, nor are 

 they furnished with claws of a formidable character; 

 but they are nocturnal in their activity, as foxes are, 

 and the whole of that race when in a wild state. They 

 are also very nimble animals in all their motions : 

 and, along with a great variety of resources, they have 

 a great deal of tractability. They have the hand of 

 the monkey, so that they can climb a tree with equal 

 expedition ; their legs are at the same time articulated 

 so as to be by no means inefficient in running; and to 

 these properties they add the scent and the sagacity 

 of the dog. Accordingly, some of them at least are 

 trained for the chase, and for some domestic pur- 

 poses ; and though there is no account of their 

 exercising that watchfulness which must be re- 

 garded as the most valuable quality of the dog, they 

 form better substitutes for that animal than are any- 

 where else to be met with. Indeed, upon looking at 

 the plate, it will be seen that, with the exception of 

 the hands, and the greater proportional length of the 

 tails, lemurs have not only much of the form, but they 

 have also not a little of the expression, of dogs. 



Still, though they are employed in the chase, and 

 though they eat animal matter, the principal adapta- 



tion of thoir mouths is for the ealing of fruits ; and it 

 is in this, and in the possessing- of instruments adapted 

 for climbing, that they bear the most resemblance to 

 the monkeys, and are ranged next to them in the 

 system. 



In the upper jaw the lemurs have four incisive teeth, 

 two canines and twelve grinders ; but in the lower jaw 

 there are six incisors, two canines, and only ten grinders. 

 The upper jaw bears a considerable resemblance to that 

 of the American monkey ; while the lower jaw differs, 

 both in the number of incisive teeth and in their form 

 and position; They are very much elongated, very 

 slender, and not directed upwards as in the apes, but 

 pointing so much forward as to be nearly horizontal. 

 The external one on each side differs in form from 

 the others, and is so much larger lhat it is doubtful 

 whether this and the one which follows it are the true 

 canine, though that tooth is certainly not entitled to 

 be classed as a grinder. If, however, this second 

 tooth in the lower jaw that is, the fourth from the 

 front is to be considered as the true canine, there is 

 a difference in the mouth of the lemur from that of 

 all animals with which we are acquainted ; inasmuch 

 as the upper canine stands farther forward than the 

 other, whereas in other animals, the canine in the 

 under jaw is in advance. The true grinders are all 

 of the same form, with two points, one external and 

 the other internal. In the upper jaw there are three 

 grinders, of which the first is the largest and the 

 second the smallest, the first having two tubercles 

 on the outside very much developed. The false 

 grinders, which are three in number, are separated 

 from the canine by an interval. In the different 

 species, however, there are great differences in the 

 form of the mouth, so that it is not easy to reduce them 

 to any general description ; and the best conclusion 

 to which we can come on an inspection of the mouth is, 

 that the animals are very miscellaneous in their feed- 

 ing. This agrees with their habits, so far as these 

 are known, for being wholly nocturnal animals, and 

 living in the woods, it is impossible to examine them 

 with the requisite degree of care. Nor can we draw 

 any certain conclusion from what they eat in a state 

 of domestication, because they are very miscellaneous, 

 and will eat indiscriminately fruits, farinaceous roots, 

 insects, and animal substances. 



The limbs of those animals, more especially their 

 hind ones, are very considerably elongated ; the 

 thumbs in them are placed at a great distance from 

 the fingers, completely free to their articulations, so 

 that the hand forms a very efficient grasping instru- 

 ment. All their fingers, or toes rather, have flat 

 nails, with the exception of the second one on the 

 hind foot, which has the phalanx which bears the 

 claw very slender, and the claw itself is awl shaped. 

 The tail is generally longer than the body, and adds 

 much to the beauty of the form of the animal ; but 

 it is not prehensile, or capable of laying hold, which 

 is another distinction between the lemurs and those 

 monkeys to which they bear so close a resemblance 

 in many respects. Generally speaking, the whole 

 form of the lemur is slender and flexible ; the head is 

 elongated, with a triangular profile, and a slender 

 muzzle bearing no inconsiderable resemblance to that 

 of the fox, for which reason they have sometimes 

 been called fox-headed monkeys. Their covering is, 

 generally speaking, woolly, very abundant, and much 

 frizzled out on the body ; their ears are short, rounded, 

 and covered with silky hair ; their nostrils are in the 



