THE MONKEY FAMILY. 



85 



harmless spectator of the ornithological banquet. 

 I am sure that I acted rightly. 



Once more, I wish to draw the attention of the 

 reader, to these ever-fruitful forests of the torrid 

 zone. I would sometimes say to myself, as I was 

 roving through them, that if a man could climb 

 like a monkey, and feel as safe, and as much at his 

 ease, as monkeys are in them, he might amuse 

 himself amongst them, from month to month, and 

 from year to year, without any fear of a deficiency 

 of trees, to arrest his journey onwards, and force 

 him to the ground again ; so dense is the foliage, 

 and so interwoven are the branches. 



Indeed, the traveller who contemplates the 

 altitude of these trees, cannot but form an indif- 

 ferent opinion of those in his own woods at home. 

 These are merely dwarfs ; whilst those in the wilds 

 of Guiana, appear like mighty giants. One could 

 fancy, that they had been trained originally, by the 

 hand of Omnipotence itself to ornament the 

 grounds of Paradise for Adam. 



Never can I forget, to my dying day, the 

 impression which the contemplation of them, made 

 upon my mind : — a mind, I may say, serene 

 amidst nature's pristine beauties, after having left 

 behind it, the chequered joys and sorrows of a dull 

 existence in its native land. 



