512 USE OF PREHENSILE ORGANS IN LOCOMOTION. 
solved, until some source of power shall be discovered, far 
surpassing that which his muscular strength affords, and so 
portable in its nature as not materially to add to his weight. 
674. The only other organs of locomotion which we have 
to consider, are those of prehension. Of these, the principal 
have been elsewhere noticed, with reference to their use in 
laying hold of food and conveying it to the mouth (§ 172), 
and with regard to the differences between the hand of Man 
and the claspers of the Quadrumana (§ 643). The hand of — 
Man is seldom employed to assist in his locomotion, except 
in swimming (where it serves the purpose of a fin), and in 
climbing ; neither of which kinds of movement can be said 
to be natural to him. But the claspers of the Quadrumana 
(fig. 254) are most efficient instru- 
ments of locomotion ; enabling 
them not only to grasp the branches 
of the trees which they climb to 
despoil them of their fruit, but 
also to catch hold of them at the 
end of a long leap. This they do 
with the most wonderful agility ; 
as all who have seen Monkeys in 
circumstances at all like those of 
their natural habitations, must 
have observed. The Gibbons, or 
long-armed Apes of the East Indies, 
are probably the most remarkable 
in this respect. The Author has 
seen the Ungkaputi leap round and 
round a room of about fifteen feet 
square, catching at each side by 
some small support attached to the 
wall; and taking its next leap fs 
such it could be called) by merely 
swinging itself from this, without 
. touching anything solid with its 
feet. There are many of the Monkey tribe, however, espe- 
cially in the New World, whose hands are less efficient as 
instruments of prehension ; and these are furnished with a 
prehensile tail; that is, a tail which can be coiled round th 
branch of a tree, and by which the animal can suspend itse’ 
Fig. 254.—CuImPANZEE. 
