Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-08-10

"Pee III unuerstandlng the princinla
vi comDination, and lives in small colo.
mes, which are banded together nv
mutual agreement, for purposes of at
TACK and defence. 1t is poss. 9 ed of
sufncient tactical skill to post seatries
VINO transmit warning of approaching
uanSer to the main bodY
py means of code of signals
winch every member of the COM
munlty understands. And we have
even oeen informed by a recent travel
ler-not' however, it is right to add.
upon MS own personal a uthority-that
!. u mas learned the secret of producing
nre by friction, and is accustomed.
Wnen IL mades its raids upon the plan
tations, to illum nate its midnight wav
by carrying blazing torchl
setting aside, however, the extreme
lmProbabllity that even a chimpanzee
should attain reasoning powers SO ad-
Vanced to allow it, not only to over
come Its natural dread of an element
which animals seem almost universally
10 regard with the utmost terror. but
also TO control a1d utilize a force
which no living creature but man has
ever been known even to produce, we may
accept 1t as perfectly certain that SO
cunning an animal, even if it possessed
the faculty In question, would be far
100 clever to make use of it. For if,
as we know, the chimpanzee is suffi-
ciently wary to avoid even the needless
cracking Of a dried twig, when on
predatory excursion bent, it would
scarcely be likely to cha 'lenge the at
tentlon of those whose property it was
stealing by providing an illumination,
which Its own keen eyesight, moreover,
would render perfectly unnecessary.
Most of the monkeys which live in
society appear to adopt the same tao
tics IN their nocturnal raids. GER
tain number are told off to act az SEN
tlnels, while the actual robbery is en-
trusted to few of the most expert
enced, the remainder acting as receiv-
ers of the stolen goods, and conveying
them at once to a place of safety.
Among the most interesting of the
monkey tribe are the highly acrobatic
Gibbons, whose wonderful activity of
hand and foot puts that of even the
most accomplished human gymnasts to
utter shame. L have never yet been
privileged to see these creatures save
within the bounds OF a comparatively
small cage; but even in those narrow
limits, which must greatly have ham
pered the freedom of their movements,
their agility was perfectly amazing.
The eye literally could scarcely follow
them in their flight. They swung
themselves with the most marvellous
grace and lightness from branch to
branch and from bar to bar, touching
each In turn for but the merest frac-
of L.
perfect ease through twelve or fifteen
feet of space. Yet never once did they
overshoot their mark, OF come short
of 1t by SO much as a single inch.
They did not appear to put out the
slightest exertion as they darted
along, and the impetus of the first
leap seemed inexhaus tible. So that 1t
was rather hard at first to realize that
these we're actual living beings of flesh
and blood, and not the fantastic crea-
that many traveller, when first he
sees troop of gibbons darting out
from bough to bough in the distance,
mistakes them for giant birds, for GER
talnly there are not few of the fea-
thered race which could scarcely excel
them in speed of their flight.
One member of the monkey tribe
the cotugo-is said to fly; but incor-
rectly. 1t has indeed the envisbls
faculty of skimming for limited dis
tance through the air, for the skin of
its sides and f1anks is widely e1tensi-
BILE, aud is connected with both fore
and hind feet, SO that when the little
short legs are stretched stiffiy out.
the animal is converted into a kind
OF living parachute. And by mounting a
lofty tree, and then leaping in the di-
at a single bound through eighty yards
or more of space. But of flight, in
the strict and proper sense of the term,
the air with the membrane which con-
stitutes the so-called wings" 1t can
not alter its course when once it has
launched itself into space. And it can
not alight at level higher than that
from which it sprang. In fact. it is
simply buoyed up by the air during an
extended leap, just as an oyster shell
Is buoyed up for time when flung
edgeways from the hand of thrower.
SO, too, with the petaurists OF Aus
tralia, the "Hying" squirrels of India
and America, and the "hying" dragon
really fly at all, but simply leap from
one branch to another, and are enabled
to pass through an unusual extent OF
intervening space by the peculiaritiPs
of their bodily structure.
And yet the colugo-although some
naturalists are insisting that it is really
a first cousin of the hedgehog and the
mole-may fairly be regarded as a
connecting link between the monkeys
and the bats. In the general princi-
pies of its structure-which, how
ever, is in many respects abnormal
1t is u lemur, and therefore a
monkey; but in the singular develop
ment of the skin of the sides OF the
body, and in the use made thereof, we
can trace at least an approximation to
the wonderful wing-hands OF the bats.
For IN these also the frame work IS sup
piled by the fore-limbs, greatly extend
ed and attenuated, while the connect
ing membrane is identical IN character
with that which enables the colugo to
skim through the air without actually
flying.
Lemurs are very odd creatures.
They have been called 'the monkeys
poor relations, "Just as monkeys them
selves have been styled the poor rem
tions" of man. And certainly they do
give one a kind of impression that they
are suffering from a deep sense OF IN
feriority and humiliation. Perhaps 1t is
because they are nocturnal by nature,
and consequently extremely uncom-
Portable when one sees them In open
daylight. And they well deserve their
popular title of lemurs; for there
is something strangely spectral and
'.uncanny'' about them. Their dark
ling habits; their slow, measured m ove-
ments; their stealthy, silent tread; and
The weird expression Of their large,
rounds, staring eyes: all these COM
bine to give the observer an underlined
notion that he is looking upon creatures
from the world of shadows, ghosts,
perhaps, of monkeys dead and gone,
which some stern fate compels to wan