134 APES AXD MONKEYS. 



forty, or even up to seventy ; and there were three such bodies of them in the 

 country immediately about Simon's Bay, and in the tract stretching dowTi to Cape 

 Point. When on the feed, two or three keep watch, and one usually lieai-s them 

 before one sees them. The warning cry is like the German huch, much prolonged 

 As soon as they see one, three or four of them mount on the scattered rocks so as 

 to have a clear view over the bushes and heaths, and watch everj' movement of 

 the enemy, so that it is extremelj- difficult to get witliin shot of them. If one 

 stands still, or does not go any nearer, merely passing by, they employ themselves, 

 as they sit unconcemedly, in scratching in the usual monkey fashion, but still never 

 losing sight of their object of suspicion. 



" Once I came across a troop on a sudden, on looking over a low cliff. They 

 dashed off at a tremendous pace, galloping on all foui-s, till far out of shot, when 

 they climbed up on to a rocky eminence, and calmh' sat down to watch me. The 

 baboons live on roots, which they chg up, and on fruits, and they turn over the 

 stones to look for insects and such food underneath. It is striking thus to see 

 monkeys roaming about on open moorland, where there are no trees. 



"The track of the baboons on the sand is unmistakable. The foot makes 

 a mai-k where the animal has been galloping, just like that of a child's foot; 

 the fore-limb makes a mark not half so deeply indented, the hand being used 

 merelj^ to touch on, as it were, to prepare a fresh spring with the feet. I found the 

 skeleton of one of the baboons in a cave at Cape Point. The animal had evidently 

 crawled into the cave to die." 



Mrs. A. Martin, in Homp Life on an Ostrich Farm, also gives an excellent 

 description of the habits of the chaema in the Cape district, from which the 

 follo-\vino- extracts are taken : " On mountain excui-sions," writes tliis ladv, " you 

 frequently hear his sui'ly bark, and sometimes see him looking out defiantly at you 

 from behind a rock or bush, where possibly you have disturbed him in the niirLst of 

 an excitinof lizard-hunt, or careful investigation of loose .stones in search of the 

 centipedes, scoi-pions, and beetles hidden beneath. These creatures, uninviting 

 though they appear to us, are among his favourite dainties, and he catches them 

 with wonderful dexterity. In the silence of night his voice is so distinctly audible 

 from the homestead that you would imagine him to be close by. though in reality 

 he is far off in one of the kloofs of the mountains. One night, as we strolled up 

 and down near the house, enjoying the bright moonlight, a loud choiiis of distant 

 baboons, to which we were listening, was .siiddenlj- interrupted, evident!}- by the 

 spring of a hungry leopard, the moment's silence being followed by the agonised 

 and prolonged yells of the victim. . . . Xo vegetable poison has the slightest effect 

 on the baboon's iron constitution : and, indeed, if there exists any poison at all 

 capable of killing him, it is quite certain that, with liis superior intelligence, he 

 would be far too artful to take it ; and when the fiat for his destruction has gone 

 forth, a well-oi-ganised attack has to be made on him with dogs and guns. He can 

 show tight, too, and the dogs must be well trained and have the safety of numbei-s 

 to enable them to face him ; for in fighting he has the immense advantage of hands, 

 with which he seizes a dog and holds him fast, while he inflicts a fatal bite through 

 the loins. Indeed, for either dog or man, coming to close quartei-s with Adonis [as 

 the chaema is ironically called by the Boers] is no trifling matter. One of our 



