Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-04-03
E. REM AND MONKEYS.

My MEN AND MoNhS o' |, Animals These Alone Fail to swim Naturally.
 an ;e almost the only anlnal thae s, m instlnctive n knowledge of swim " xvI,iela isl regarded as remarkable ss;,dsr;,,r the vast period of time 2, ,s,r, r,'3 ra.s 3wbich this accomplishment s,sen '.s n nearly essential to him. There ~, ,,s.' ar;dence that man has almost srs lived in proximity to water. nc tie fIuvia1 drift are found the anf stone implements, and where .s of human handiwork are dls- [retl along with the remains ot ex- animals it is almost always Tn |.s,ae cayerns. Men have, there
 always been swimmers, just as Eavages are at the present day. Ana notwithstanding this long experi-
 mankind has not acquired an ln- |etive. q hereditary knowledge of arait1g. Dr. Louis Robinson con- rs that the inability of man to n instinctively is proof of his de- from apes. Dr. Robinson thus aims the ability of animals to swim ,on as they are thrown into the |ar: A dog or horse is able to swim, because he has an intuitive knowl-
 of the art of swimming, but be- Ee it so happens that his usual ter -;a1 method of locomotion, when
 up in the water, will keep hl1n It. It is natural for an animal, h under a strong state of excite t. to employ it's usual methods of motion. For instance, if we pick. a rabbit, and it is frightened, 1t
 immediately begin to work it's
 as in the act of running. Or Eve hold a bird in our hands i'll flap its wings as in the act ot Rg. Now, an animal, when it finds f in the water for the first time, is doubt in an excited state of mind,
 it immediately begins to employ |rdinary methods of loeomotion. It appens that these are of the kind keep it afioat and the animal thus att once the accomplishment of Inning. Animals like the cat and |xev, which have a decided antipa- to water, nevertheless swim as
 as they find themselves in that bent.
 man, too, when he finds himself in water without a knowledge of inning immediately begins to put h his natural method of locomotion. 1t so happens that that method is |of the kind to keep him afoat. He rts to the arboreal habits of his an- ors, the apes. He proceeds to climb.
 he does both with his arms and
 He gets his arms out of the water his head is immersed. He grasps
 floating twig with the instinct of arboreal ancestor when he was hing upward, frightened by the ap- tion of snake on the ground. Of |se any man knows that he ought keep his hands down when in the er, but ninety>nine men out of dred who have not learned to swim
 when they find themselves in water, do precisely the opposite this. Tn spite of their knowl-
 that such an action is fatal,
 revert, as Dr. Robinson would us belle 7e, to the instinct of their PreaI ancestors. There was, indeed, me when mems ancestors were lrupeds and ran away from an ny on the ground on all fours, but was long ago, as long as the close he Secondary epoch. Since then intervened the vast period of his breal Existence, which anatomy and ogy show in the opinion of men of nce to have been much longer than xistenee as biped. But the ques- at once occurs, are apes and mon- unable to swim? Upon this point Robinson does not appear to have exhaustive information. Baboons swim, but baboons have a quad fdal mode of progression, even h climbing a tree A mans gait mounting a ladder is said to be h like that of a true arborean bal thar the gait of baboon. AL
 Russell Wallace says that South can monkeys seldom or never cross hms rivers being the boundary
 between allied species. Dr. inson claims that there is a strong umption that the more bulky ones, the gorilla and the orang -outang, as helpless in the water as man. an interesting question and one ch could, we should suppose, be easily decided by experiment. IN. Times.