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STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



pended from a branch as if this was a position of rest, 

 or swing to-and-fro and then throw itself a great distance 

 through the air. The arms, in fact, completely take the 

 place of the legs for travelling. Instead of jumping from 

 bough to bough and running on the branches, like other 

 apes and monkeys, the gibbons move along while hanging 

 suspended in the air, stretching their arms from bough 



GibBON (Hijlobatts LiitdlouUs). 



to bough, and thus going hand over hand, as a very active 

 sailor will climb along a rope. The strength of their 

 arms is, however, so j)rodigious, and their hold so sure, 

 that they often loose one hand before they have caught 

 a bough with the other, thus seeming almost to fly 

 through the air by a series of swinging leaps : and they 



