142 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



Guided by one of the local natives, we now plunge 

 into a sea of tangled undergrowth ; great creepers catch 

 across our chests and faces ; the light shines dimly 

 through the high overhead canopy of leaves. We cross 

 watercourses, and plunge through half concealed morasses ; 

 sometimes we are descending the sides of almost pre- 

 cipitous ravines ; at others we are scrambling upwards 

 on hands and knees, our eyes are kept constantly em- 

 ployed scanning the branches aloft, but for a long time 

 our search goes unrewarded. 



Presently something white and gleaming seems to fall 

 vertically from a bough, and there is a rustle and slight 

 crashing of branches. The flying shape is, in a moment, 

 lost to sight ; but another and another follow, and we 

 can see the branches of the surrounding trees violently 

 agitated. It is a troop of Colobus Monkeys ; but the 

 eye can scarcely follow their swift movements, and their 

 black and white markings so harmonize with the back- 

 ground of leaves and branches that it is very difficult 

 to distinguish them when at rest. We follow on, and, 

 when we have once more got within thirty or forty yards, 

 the troop, which has been carefully watching our every 

 movement, once more dashes off through the tops of the 

 trees. There are probably not more than a dozen at most 

 associated in one body, but here and there we may notice 

 a single old male, swinging easily from branch to branch, 

 obtaining a purchase from the smallest twigs, and rustling 

 swiftly through the leaves, as he drops out of sight on 

 the other side of a yawning ravine, which it will take us 

 earth-bound folk a good half-hour to cross. 



The Colobus never steals from crops or gardens ; he 

 finds his sole food among the leaves and fruits of the 

 forest trees which form his home. He is gentle and 

 inoffensive in disposition ; but, tame though he becomes 



