250 
THE MONKEY TRIBES 
and surly, and showing a disinclination to be handled much, although 
so far as it has been observed this character appears to be exceptional. 
These large apes do not generally go in troops; a few individuals only 
being found together. The old males are more savage than the females 
and resist all attempts to capture them by biting severely, and also by 
dealing heavy blows with their powerful arms. They move rapidly, 
though awkwardly, over the ground, going on fours and walking on 
the knuckles of their front hands, the hind ones being open and placed 
flat down like a foot. The females carry their young upon their backs 
or else clinging to their breast, their long fur enabling the little ones 
to hold on with a more tenacious grip, so as to make it almost impos¬ 
sible to tear them away even after the dam has been killed. 
But it is upon the trees that the apes appear to greatest advantage, 
their long powerful arms enabling them to reach considerable dis¬ 
tances, and they swing themselves from branch to branch with such 
strength and rapidity that it is impossible for a man to keep up with 
them in the forest. They pass the night in the trees; and several 
species are in the habit, after selecting a fork in the highest part near 
the trunk, of breaking off good-sized branches, and by laying them 
across each other in every direction, constructing a rude kind of nest 
in which they remain until dawn. Usually they fashion one of these 
every evening, not returning to any particular spot after roaming 
about all day, but pass the night wherever they happen to be. The 
large apes are only met with in those districts where the forests are of 
great extent; for being accustomed to pass over the trees when their 
tops interlace, by swinging themselves from branch to branch by 
means of their long arms, they cannot exist in open countries or where 
the trees stand widely apart. When passing along some long branch, 
these animals walk in a semi-erect attitude, steadying themselves at 
times by placing the knuckles of the hand of one of the long arms upon 
the bark. When the branches of an adjoining tree are reached they 
are seized with both hands, but before the animal is willing to trust 
himself to them he pulls with all his strength, and, satisfied that they 
will bear his weight, swings himself in an easy curve into the next 
tree, and in this way soon traverses a large extent of the forest. 
The grimaces of these animals, and their mode of showing satis- 
