THE MONKE Y FA MIL Y. 1 83 



humour, by one arm, from branch to branch, imitating the pendulum 

 of a clock ; then he would spring to another branch, and alight on 

 it upon all-fours, with astonishing agility and steadfastness; and 

 often he came down a sloping part of the tree, head foremost, as 

 though he had been walking on the level ground. So long as he 

 remained in the tree, his every turn and movement indicated that he 

 was just where he ought to be ; and he clearly showed by his actions, 

 and by his manifest self-possession, that the tree to him was exactly 

 as the ground is to us, or the water to the finny tribes. I had, 

 indeed, a most favourable opportunity of making a few observations 

 on the deportment of this huge but inocuous ape, both whilst I was 

 inside and outside of his metropolitan prison. I soon saw clearly 

 that the tendons in his long and strangely-proportioned arms did all 

 his work for him, as he jumped from place to place, or whilst he 

 remained suspended from the branch which he had seized. When 

 all his four limbs were collected on the branch, his hinder ones 

 seemed merely to act as steadying-props, or secondary adjuvants. It 

 was only when he thus exhibited himself, that I could form a correct 

 notion of the astounding strength with which nature had endowed the 

 fore part of his body. A movement, that would have been utterly 

 impossible to the most active of us lords of the creation, appeared ease 

 itself in this unsightly brute. Thus, having witnessed the obvious self- 

 possession and activity of the orang-outang in a tree, and having 

 seen a full display of its awkwardness, and apparent want of confi- 

 dence, after it had descended to the ground, I pronounced it, within 

 my mind, to be an absolutely arboreal animal, in every sense of the 

 word ; nor shall the collected writings of all authors, modern as well 

 as ancient, who have given us detailed and positive accounts of this 

 great ape's achievements on the ground, ever convince me to the 

 contrary. This interesting " wild man of the woods " died when 

 least expected to have been in danger ; and an unforeseen event 

 deprived me of an opportunity to examine its remains. 



Here, with the courteous reader's leave, I will avail myself once 

 more, and for the last time, of a short dialogue betwixt myself and 

 this departed ape, although I am fully aware that such a mode of 

 imparting zoological knowledge is quite beneath the notice of our 

 sages, who are all for solemn science ; still, I venture to hope that a 



