676 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



the tertiary ages of the world. From the dentition of the mylodon, it may be con- 

 cluded that, like the sloth of the present day, this monstrous animal fed on the leaves 

 or slender terminal twigs of trees ; but while the former, from the comparatively light 

 weight of his body, is enabled to run along the under side of the boughs till he has 

 reached a commodious feeding-place, the elephantine bulk of the mylodon evidently 

 rendered all climbing utterly impossible. First scratching away the soil from the roots 

 of the tree on whose foliage he intended to feast, he next grasped it with his long fore- 

 legs, and rocking it to and fro, to right and left, soon brought it to the ground, for 

 " extraordinary must have been the strength and proportions of that tree," says 

 Professor Owen, "which in such an embrace could long withstand the efforts of its 

 ponderous assailant." 



In the midst of tropical vegetation, the Simiae, or Monkey and Ape tribes, lead a free 

 forest life, for which they might well be envied. The green canopy of the woods 

 protects them at every season of the year from the burning rays of a vertical sun, 

 flowers of the most delicious fragrance embalm the air they breathe, and an endless 

 supply of fruits and nuts never allows them to know want, for should the stores near 

 at hand be exhausted, an easy migration to some other district soon restores them to 

 abundance. With an agility far surpassing that with which the sailor ascends the 

 rigging, and climbs even to the giddy top of the highest mast, they leap from bush- 

 rope to bush-rope, and from bough to bough, mocking the tiger-cat and the boa, which 

 are unable to follow them in their rapid evolutions. Formed to live on trees, and not 

 upon the ground, they are as excellent climbers as they are bad pedestrians. Both 

 their fore and hind feet are shaped as hands, generally with four fingers and a thumb, 

 so that they can seize or grasp a bough with all alike. 



Buffon erroneously remarks of the chimpanzee, that he always walks erect, even 

 when carrying a weight ; but this ape, as well as the other anthropomorphous simias, 

 proves by the slowness and awkwardness of his movements, when by chance he walks 

 upon even ground, that this position is by no means natural to him, or congenial to his 

 organization. Man alone, of all creatures, possesses an upright walk ; the ape, on the 

 contrary, always stoops, and not to lose his equilibrium when walking, is obliged to 

 place his hands upon the back of his head, or on his loins. Thus, in his native wildt?, 

 he rarely has recourse to this inconvenient mode of progression, and when forced by 

 some chance or other to quit the trees, he leans while walking upon the finger-knuckles 

 of his anterior extremities, a position which in fact very much resembles walking on 

 all- fours. It is, indeed, only necessary to compare the long, robust, and muscular 

 arms of the chimpanzee with his weaker and shorter hind-feet, to be at once convinced 

 that be was never intended for walking. But see with what rapidity, with what power 

 and grace he moves from branch to branch, his hind-legs serving him only as holdfasts, 

 while his chief strength is in his arms. The tree is, without all doubt, for him what 

 the earth is for us, the air for the bird, or the water for the fish. 



We cannot wonder at the ancients having known but few species of the simias, as 

 these animals chiefly belong to the torrid zone, with which the Greeks and Romans 

 were so imperfectly acquainted. It is only since a wide extent of the tropical regions 

 has been opened by trade or conquest to European research, that many of the mys- 

 teries of monkey-existence have been brought to light from the darkness of the pri- 



