CLIMB IXG POWEKS OF THE MONKEY. 407 



supply of fruits and nuts never allows them to know want, for 

 should the stores near at hand be exhausted, an easy migration 

 to some other district soon restores them to abundance. With 

 an agility far surpassing that with which the sailor ascends the 

 rigging, and climbs even to. the giddy top of the highest mast, 

 they leap from bush-rope to bush-rope, and from bough to 

 bough, mocking the tiger-cat and the boa, which are unable to 

 follow them in their rapid evolutions. Formed to live on trees, 

 and not upon the ground, they are as excellent climbers as the}^ 

 are bad pedestrians. Both their fore and hind-feet are shaped . 

 as hands, generally with four fingers and a thumb, so that they 

 can seize or grasp a bough with all alike. 



Buffon erroneously remarks of the chimpanzee, that he 

 always walks erect, even when carrying a weight ; but this ape, 

 as well as the other anthropomorphous simise, proves by the 

 slowness and awkwardness of his movemoats, when by chance 

 he walks upon even ground, that this position is by no means 

 natural to him, or congenial to his organisation. Man alone 

 of all creatures, possesses an upright walk ;, the ape, on the 

 contrary, always stoops, and not to lose his eqviilibrium when 

 walking, is obliged to place his hands upon the back of his 

 head, or on his loins. Thus, in his native wilds, be rarely has 

 recourse to this inconvenient mode of progression, and when 

 forced by some chance or other to quit the trees, he leans while 

 walking upon the finger-knuckles of his anteriot extremities, a 

 position which in fact, very much resembles walking on all-fours. 



It is, indeed, only necessary to compare the long, robust, and 

 muscular arms of the chimpanzee with his weaker and shorter 

 hind-feet, to be at once convinced that he was never intended 

 for walking. But see with, what rapidity, with what power and 

 grace, he moves from branch to branch, his hind-legs serving 

 him only as hold-fasts, while his chief strength is in his arms. 

 The tree is, without all doubt, for him what the earth is for us, 

 the air for the bird, or the water for the fish. 



The simile of the Old World are all distinguished by the 

 common character of a narrow partition of the nose like that of 

 man, and by the same number of teeth, each jaw being provided 

 with ten grinders, two canine teeth, and four incisors, as in the 

 human race. The targe apes, or tailless monkeys, resemble us 

 besides in many other respects^ as, well iu their external 



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