THE PARADISE OF MONKEYS. 
By R. L. GARner. 
UST below the equator on the west side of Africa is a broad sweep of delta 
lands covering a territory of five or six thousand square miles in extent. More 
than half of this area is covered with dense forest and traversed by deep winding 
rivers and mangrove swamps. Mules and miles of it are imaccessible to man or beast, 
and only creatures that fly, or creep, or travel in the tree-tops ever reach certain parts 
of those dreary, dismal shades. Other parts of the delta are covered with broad, grassy 
plains, dotted over with small lakes, clumps of shrub, dates, and low bush, crossed by 
narrow lagoons, and encircled by long belts and girdles of jungle. Upon these beautiful 
plains feed herds of buffalo and wild pigs. Along the borders of them the timid antelopes 
find food and shelter. In the lakes live schools of hippopotami. Through the jungle 
roam droves of elephants, and everywhere are birds of endless number and variety. 
Over the plains and along the edges of the jungle, im the swamps and through 
the forest, are divers kinds of wild fruits, nuts and berries. It is a land of perpetual 
summer, where every moon has its harvest of fruits and its carnival of’ flowers. 
Hyery day brings forth a waste of food, and every hour a new crop is sown. Yet 
in the midst of all this abundance there are but few things that will sustain the life 
of man; and since nature in all her generosity has made no proyision for him there, 
it would seem that it was not intended for him ever to occupy that strangely beautiful 
land. Yet in it everywhere live scores and schools of the monkey race. From place 
to place in the great forest, among the sylvan arches, over bridges of plaited boughs 
and through bowers of green, go troops and bands of these cunning little nomads of 
the bush swinging from vine to vine or leaping from limb to limb, rich in their 
possessions, and happy in their freedom. They are the real children of the wild 
waste of forest, and through it they play and chatter the livelong day. Hvery tree 
is their playground and everywhere their home. 
Line of Fociane. 
Line of Healil, 
Line of Pete. 
Ee PEE ASS : { 
Photographs by Hutchinson & Co., by permission of the Trustees of the British Musewm. 
IMPRESSION OF RIGHT HAND OF HUMAN BEING. PALM OF LEFT HAND OF GORILLA. 
275 
