140 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
are applied, in climbing and leaping, by the slenderness 
of their form, the flexibility of their joints, and the mus- 
cular activity with which these qualities are so strikingly 
combined. But of all their organs there is perhaps none 
which exhibits so remarkable a discrepancy in every 
particular as the tail; which is entirely wanting in some, 
forms a mere tubercle in others, in a third group is short 
and tapering, in a fourth of moderate length and cylin- 
drical, in a fifth extremely long but uniformly covered 
with hair; in others, again, of equal length, divested of 
hair beneath and near the tip, and capable of being 
twisted round the branch of a tree or any other similar 
substance in such a manner as to support the whole 
weight of the animal, even without the assistance of his 
hands. 
In none of them, it may be observed, are the hands 
formed for swimming, or the nails constructed for 
digging the earth; and in none of them is the naked 
callous portion, which corresponds to the sole or the 
palm, capable of being applied, like the feet of man 
or of the bear, to the flat surfaces on which they may 
occasionally tread. Even in those which have the greatest 
propensity to assume an upright posture, the body is, 
under such circumstances, wholly supported by the 
outer margins of the posterior hands. The earth, in 
fact, is not their proper place of abode; they are essen- 
tially inhabitants of trees, and every part of their organi- 
zation is admirably fitted for the mode of life to which 
they were destined by the hand of nature herself. 
Throughout the vast forests of Asia, Africa, and South. 
America, and more especially in those portions of the 
three continents which are comprehended within the 
