2870 Quadrupeds. 



matter and minute confervoid growth, prevents their accumulation by removing them 

 from the field, and, by its vital powers, converts what would otherwise act as poison, 

 into a rich and fruitful nutriment, again to constitute a pabulum for the vegetable 

 growth, while it also acts the important part of a purveyor to its finny neighbours — 

 Robert Warington. 



An Army of Monkeys : a Novel Suspension Bridge. — " They are coming towards 

 the bridge ; they will most likely cross by the rocks yonder," observed Raoul. " How 

 —swim it ?" I asked. " It is a torrent there." " Oh, no !" answered the French- 

 man ; " monkeys would rather go into fire than water. If they cannot leap the 

 stream, they will bridge it." "Bridge it! and how?'' " Stop a moment, Captain — 

 you shall see." The half human voices now sounded nearer, and we could perceive 

 that the animals were approaching the spot where we lay. Presently they appeared 

 on the opposite bank, headed by an old gray chieftain, and officered like so many 

 soldiers. They were, as Raoul had stated, of the comadreja or ring-tailed tribe. One 

 — an aide-de-camp, or chief pioneer, perhaps — ran out upon a projecting rock, and, 

 after looking across the stream, as if calculating the distance, scampered back, and 

 appeared to communicate with the leader. This produced a movement in the troop : 

 commands were issued, and fatigue parties were detached, and marched to the front. 

 Meanwhile several of the comadrejas — engineers, no doubt — ran along the bank, ex- 

 amining the trees on both sides of the arroyo. At length they all collected round a tall 

 cotton-wood tree that grew over the narrowest part of the stream, and twenty or thirty 

 of them scampered up its trunk. On reaching a high point, the foremost, a strong 

 fellow, ran out upon a limb, and, taking several turns of his tail around it, slipped off, 

 and hung head downwards. The next on the limb, also a stout one, climbed down 

 the body of the first, and whipping his tail tightly round the neck and fore-arm of the 

 latter, dropped off in his turn, and hung head down: the third repeated this 

 manoeuvre upon the second, and the fourth upon the third, and so on, until the last 

 upon the string rested his fore-paws on the ground. The living chain now com- 

 menced swinging backwards and forwards, like the pendulum of a clock : the motion 

 was slight at first, but gradually increased, the lowermost monkey striking his hands 

 violently on the earth as he passed the tangent of the oscillating curve. Several 

 others upon the limbs above aided the movement. This continued until the monkey 

 at the end of the chain was thrown among the branches of a tree on the opposite 

 bank. Here, after two or three vibrations, he clutched a limb, and held fast. This 

 movement was executed adroitly, just at the culminating point of the oscillation, in 

 order to save the intermediate links from the violence of a too sudden jerk! The 

 chain was now fast at both ends, forming a complete suspension bridge, over which 

 the whole troop, to the number of four or five hundred, passed with the rapidity of 

 thought. It was one of the most comical sights I ever beheld, to witness the quizzical 

 expression of countenances along that living chain ! The troop was now on the other 

 side, but how were the animals forming the bridge to get themselves over ? This was 

 the question that suggested itself. Manifestly, by number one letting go his tail. 

 But then the point d'appui on the other side was much lower down, and number one, 

 with half-a-dozen of his neighbours, would be dashed against the opposite bank, or 



