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NATURAL HISTORY. 
its marvellous fertility and riclmess of vegetation, are arid-looking on the top, and dark, partly from the 
natural tint of the stone which is composed of gneiss. They encircle a valley, and extend over about 
ten square miles, being rugged, or in the form of gigantic pillars. Sloping away from the valley 
region with its great forests, they present precipitous sides towards it, and are broken up by ravines. 
At first sight the stone of the precipices appears to be sterile or poor in vegetation, but the 
nearer the margin of the high land is approached the more luxuriant it becomes, the more flowery the 
open fields, and the more numerous the crystal brooks. Cultivation goes on here, and grain is carefully 
sown, maize especially. In other parts of the valley a dense dark-green primeval forest reaches close 
to the precipitous and partly sterile walls of rock. The upper part of the precipices and rocks is, 
however, bare of any shrub or tree-like vegetation, and looks arid enough during the greater part of 
the year. Now all this is of great importance to the Baboon. He lives on the top of the rocks in 
hollows and under ledges of stone, and safely placed there in inaccessible places, he surveys the fertile 
scene below him, and selects the choicest of the fields for the supply of his food. Probably there 
would be no such oasis in the country were it not for a very curious plant which really gives the 
name to the “ Black Hocks,” and which clothes the hills during the wet season. And if there were 
no fertile valley the Baboon would certainly not be found in this district. As the wet season 
progresses, the hills look blacker and blacker, their ruggedness disappears, and even the sterile faces of 
the precipices grow dark, and the vegetation of the valley appears to crowd up their slope. All this 
alteration is produced by the vigorous and indeed enormous growth of a singular plant called 
Scytonema. It retains much moisture within its tangles, and long after the rains have ceased to be 
felt and to influence the vegetation of the valley, the aridity of the district is antagonised or put off 
for a while by this interesting property. The Scytonema selects the bare rocks for its favourite 
locality, and these surround the valley with its teeming vegetation as with a great sponge, whose 
moisture prolongs the weeks of plant life and of active growth, and adds to a wonderful fertility. 
With plenty of running water, abundance of food, and a very safe shelter, the Baboons have 
great cause to thank the Scytonema. They flourish amongst the rocks, and are a terrible scourge to 
the inhabitants of the valley. Their cunning and boldness are remarkable, and are increased by their 
numbers. After surveying the growth of the choicest fields of Indian corn they assemble in great 
troops and destroy entire plantations in a single night. 
THE COMMON BABOON * 
There is a Baboon which is much more commonly seen in menageries on the Continent than any 
other, and which is kept by the Arabian and Egyptian jugglers ; yet it is by no means satisfactorily 
made out whether it is a particular species or only the young or even adult form of some one of those 
already described. It has a name, however, which ought to leave the identity of the creature in no 
doubt — it is the Common Baboon, or Cynoeephalus papio. If it really comes from all the places 
whence it is said to be derived it lives over a vast district, and is to be found on the west or Guinea 
Coast inland, and also in Abyssinia, and on the Nile further north. Dr. Kirk found them in 
Zambesia in Eastern Equatorial Africa, and was told that the natives held them as sacred, and 
preserved them, calling them “ Nyarn ” and “ Manganja.” But probably the specimens from Guinea 
are those of the Sphinx Baboon, those from Abyssinia are the females of the Hamadryas or of 
Geladas, and possibly there may be some in this district which really are true Papio Baboons. 
They are very common in the half wild and tame condition ; and as they often have to take care 
of themselves in the midst of a very restless and half-starving set of men, their senses become 
sharpened, and their intelligence becomes exalted in a most curious manner. But nothing is known 
of them in the wild state. _ ' * 
They are large animals, and them hair is of a uniform yellowish-brown colour, slightly shaded 
with sandy or light red tints. The whiskers are of a light fawn colour, and the face, ears, and hands 
are naked and black ; the upper eyelids are white and naked, and the tail is about one-lialf the length 
Cynoeephalus papio. 
