THE MONKEY FAMILY. 



17 



rock, and for ever prohibited from following the 

 retiring sun in his journey to Capricorn, after he 

 has paid his annual visit to the tropic of Cancer. 



It must have cost many years of painful endur- 

 ance, to have enabled animals so susceptible of 

 cold as monkeys are, to preserve existence in such 

 an ungenial situation, until the sun, returning from 

 the Southern hemisphere, could accommodate them 

 with a sufficient supply of warmth. 



Be this as it may, there still exists, on Gibraltar's 

 towering mountain, a small colony of apes, which, 

 ^though in want of space to range in, seems never 

 to have passed the neutral ground between the 

 fortress and the realms of Spain. So that, up to 

 the present time, history has no documents to shew 

 that apes have ever been found wild in any other 

 part of Europe. 



During the short peace of Amiens, at the com 

 mencement of the present century, on visiting the 

 fortress, I saw several apes passing over the rocks 

 on all- fours towards the western side; — the wind 

 blowing strongly from the eastward. 



It is difficult to conceive how these animals 

 can procure a sufficient supply of food, the year 

 throughout; or how they can bear the chilling 

 blasts of winter. One would suppose, that they 

 must often be upon very short commons, and 



F • 



