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GUIDE TO THE 
and where he was informed she had so seriously 
injured a man, by lacerating him with her long canine 
teeth, as to occasion his death. “ Her body hanging by 
one arm as if suspended by a rope, she launches herself 
by an energetic movement, to a distant branch, which 
she catches with her left hand : but her hold is less than 
momentary ; the impulse for the next launch is acquired, 
the branch she aimed at is attained by the right hand 
again, and quitted instantaneously, and so on, in alter¬ 
nate succession. In this manner, spaces of twelve and 
eighteen feet are cleared with the greatest ease, and un¬ 
interruptedly for hours together, without the slightest 
appearance of fatigue being manifested ; and it is evident 
that if more space could be allowed, distances very 
greatly exceeding eighteen feet would be as easily cleared ; 
so that Duvaucel’s assertion, that he has seen these 
animals launch themselves from one branch to another, 
forty feet asunder, startling as it is, may be well credited. 
Sometimes, on seizing a branch in her progress, she will 
throw herself, by the power of one arm only, completely 
round it, making a revolution with such rapidity as 
almost to deceive the eye, and continue her progress 
with undiminished activity. It is singular to observe how 
suddenly this Gibbon can stop, when the impetus given 
by the rapidity and distance of her swinging leaps, 
would seem to require a gradual abatement of her move¬ 
ments. In the very midst of her flight, a branch is 
seized, the body raised, and she is seen, as if by magic 
quietly seated on it, grasping it with her feet. As suddenly 
she again throws herself into action.” As an instance of the 
dexterity and quickness of the Gibbon, the same author 
also mentions the following fact regarding the same 
