52 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



species have a mind to rob the same field, and if 

 fighting in the hills, will roll stones on to their 

 enemies. Not long ago, a colony of Gelada baboons, 

 which had been fired at by some black soldiers 

 attending a Duke of Coburg-Gotha on a hunting 

 expedition on the borders of Abyssinia, blocked a 

 pass for some days by rolling rocks on all comers. 

 This seems to give some support to a curious 

 objection raised by a Chinese local Governor in 

 a report to his superior on the difficulties in the 

 way of opening to steamers the waters of the 

 Upper Yangtze, which was quoted in the 'Times. 

 The report, after noting that the inhabitants on 

 the upper waters were ignorant men who might 

 quarrel with strangers, went on to allege that 

 monkeys inhabited the banks which would roll 

 down stones on the steamers. ' The two last 

 facts/ the report added, ' would lead to com- 

 plaint from the English, and embroil the Celestials 

 with them, especially if the men or the monkeys 

 kill any English.' 



The facility with which large herds of animals 

 or flocks of birds travel for great distances in close 

 array without crowding, confusion, or delay, has 

 always struck the writer as the necessary result of 

 some system, and method well understood by them, 

 though in many cases not yet ascertained by us. 



