OCR Text |
Show )rof. Gudger Explains How Travellers and ScLool Books for 300. Years rlave 1 old of the Way Monkeys Cross Alligator-Infested Streams ,J3ut Science Can Find No Proof of Tkis Interesting Simian -Accomplishment 0 monkeys form bridges to cross , J) alligator-infested streams in South U America by clinging to one an- 'Liter's tails? Espiorers, historians erjd geographers jjve stated this with great positiveness cer and over again for 300 years. ' our school hooks and geographies have '." lijeht this tor many generations. The ; large picture on this page is, in fact, taken v. too Holmes's "Fourth Reader," and a v fcmewhat similar illustration can be founu - b Mitchell's "New Primary Geography." But science now challenges this interest-: interest-: ng statement about the accomplishments ' ud resourcefulness of South American ' tinkers. Recent research by the author-p author-p ties of the New York American Museum .' ' ( Natural History fails to corroborate It. '. I Professor E. W. Gudger, professor of Tc Wgy, writing in Natural History, the ::; Uturaal of the American Museum, has traced the origin of this story, he thinks, Uo the Jesuit priest. Father Jose do Acosta, '-pko published a hook of travels in Latin -: te 15S9 with the following statement: as the originating end? A little thought, however, cleared up this point. The low-est low-est monkey of the oscillating chain would lay hold of the first bush or tree or branch with which he would come in contact, and would complete the living bridge, but would be unable to climb any higher be-cause be-cause of the great weight of the monkeys pulling on him. Hence, when the monkey who originated the chain let go, he would fall into the water." Following the history of this reputed accomplishment of the South American monkeys, Professor Gudger quotes from a very modern American textbook, Holmes's. "Fourth Reader," which was printed in 1S97 and is probably still in use in some schools. Here the Monkey Bridge is not only pictured by the artists, but is described de-scribed in most circumstantial detail, as follows : "I was once sailing down the Amazon, and making short trips up the rivers that flow into it. One night we had ascended a little stream so far that the trees on the f F'-fJr i ' -K :;?'::'; ;":'::, f I f i if ymt ' ;':-'..a3-;: '4 low Travellers and Sckool Books for 300 , , , "' ' N- ie ,Jt . , , I v ' ' i " '- ' '. " '' ' s rreams r v :v 0 - K ? -4 i r- ishment w lr . '-v' hl A little thought, m ; ,v V 1 J; , V 5 point. The low. A 'H T Pi ?ll', i ating chain would ' l"l ciH.f - ie m contact, and " J- - , i jf i Jfc ving bridge, but f ff 3V Vf f A . . ffN'?V it of the monkeys , Cf, V I If H when the monkey , . V - V,r ' "f? A H Jjl V') i let go, he would V- - H Vi rll A . of this reputed VSi , ' ' "t"" h XTFf ? South American . V ' - 4 ' , f ff V -4H -ger quotes from a s f v Vl'Vr V", r 4 - 'XA? -extbook, Holmes's 1 , i f ,1? V ' Vm key Bridge is not T J ft ! S'fffi9j?'' f rtists, but is de- 'I V . - S"f, " fU f V ? stantial detail, as Jr S if l ' J Jk 1 own the Amazon, - . I C ' J ' - "P the rivers that ' V , ' , 'jf ' . ' J IVS had ascended i , C ' t ' rf lf'"'- - Vv-SVU- iv'ifl ' - " s - ',); :. -rr rv ! - , J ,. L-, J !x ' W - " v,' - , V ' Our Schoolboys Were Regaled in Their South American Geos f f " ' ' I . N"vtf raphy Lessons by Illustrations of a Monkey Bridge Such a! , , ' ' , ' , I ? Is Shown in This Cut, Which Is Taken from Holmes's "Fourth , ' . w , CkhVW Reader" (1897). Clinging to One Another's Tails So as to Form a , . "V - v Long Chain, It Was Said They Would Swing Pendulum Fashion s , X Until the End "Athlete" Could Grasp a Tree on the Other Side of 4 k!ti the Stream, After Which All the Mothers and Babies Would Scamper ; !; - 5''V A.cross on the Heads and Backs of Their Accommodating Relatives. , f fiit, 'sTiW ii' fever seen a monkey bridge, and he is un- bridge may be found in a careful , j 'SlZr:m iH:K4Mh able ? hear of any reports from natives analysis and study of the vanous re- j VST ilr Wfljffit 1 ' ' ' fl ) t& .Ci of the Jungle who have claimed to have ports of writers and travellers. Pro- ; U'V'.-W n,-,,,, Keen a monkey bridge. fessor Gudger selects the details as t u -m !,''. "TvL !n the In the course of his research In regard presented by the account in Holmes a 7 , The Ahove Illu(ration, from Henri Mouhot Lo'' C 1 864 to the monkey bridge, Professor Gudger "Fourth Reader." V Centra! Parts of Indo-Ch.na C ambod.a an d Uo. 1864; jflany othgr .q Inve3tigatiolI sll0WB that th!s waa " ? Purports to Be Drawn from a Sketch by That N a'",jJ teresting antics attributed to South Amer- written by Charles Frederick Holder. ' ing the Way.m Which Apes Tease and Torment J,r . lcan monkeys by various explorers, trav- a naturalist and a man of high . , Enemy, the Stealthy Crocodile, by Sw.nf"B About '8 e historians and writers. A French standing, a writer of many books f, . , , and Tapping H.m Now and Again, Until S ome O ne ot the travelerj named Henri Mouhot, published and a member of many distinguished ' ) Frohcker. iMore Foolhardy or Le Agile .Than the Ke.t UeU a 'book in London in 1864. In which he gava scientific societies. Dr. Holder died . ( 1 H-s Paw Caught m the Trap and Vanishes this interesting episode, which was later in 1915. Into the Alligator s Interior. cQpjed ,n Bacons "illustrated Library of Summing up his conclusion. h, if Travel, Exploration and Adventure," as proessor Gudger says: ' frM. f ' i l ling to those above the bridge as best they could, some on all follows: "Let us -examln Holder's ac- ' ' y them as to leave fours, some upright some with young "it is amusing, however, for one is inter- cou;fmS e X F1M it a ' ' " He was the gym- ested in observing the habits of animals norye?dlw? things coM not be seen ' - f i the hero of the their tails and tJJ"fS .Make hast 3,1 0Ver tbe Wrld' l the,."la"ner ' clearly; second, the stream was so small rn, hr fn h which these creatures (crocodiles) catch that the trees almost met overhead; third, , hung so near tho or the bridge will Dreak. the apes, which sometimes take a fancy to the monkeys might easily have been hang- ally If some were at the lowest had "A very old monkey was the last to go play with them. Close to the bank lies the lnt, t0 Iimbs and maklng swinging leaps f,.ma'a carrvinc ,: , ainst it, and thus over. Perhaps his limbs were stiff Per- crocodile, his body in the water, and only across the narrow stream ; fourth, in these voung" might look f i Successive pushes haps he could not see very well. It was tis capacious mouth above the surface, tropicai coun;ries the vegetation along tbe iike a living chain i ' ;ing toward the op- certain that he had lost the fearlessness ready to seize anything that may come streams forms such a dense interwoven "I have had the i - it n-n nn one of his youth, for he picked his way along within reach. A troon of aDes catch sight ii tii c,. :,. ... Ko i.,t,,k i r ., - banks nearly met overhead, and our boat could go no farther. far-ther. It was not prudent prud-ent to go back in the dark. So we anchored In midstream. "The air was full of strange sounds, made by strange birds and insects, which kept me awake until just before dawn, when fell asleep in my chaii on deck. "Suddenly I felt a rough blow on my face, and became wide awake. 1 saw hanging hang-ing from a tree, and swinging away into the gloom, something that looked like a huge black rope. The end of it had struck me. In a moment back it came, swinging swing-ing this time behind the vessel. "The rope gave forth a chattering noise: it was alive. A moment more, and it was clear to me that here was a company of monkeys trying to cross the stream. The cip-hf was so novel. Our Schoolboys Were Regaled in Their South American Geoz (f raphy Lessons by Illustrations of a Monkey Bridge Such aJ Is Shown in This Cut, Which Is Taken from Holmes's "Fourth Reader" (1897). Clinging to One Another's Tails So as to Form a Long Chain, It Was Said They Would Swing Pendulum Fashion Until the End "Athlete" Could Grasp a Tree on the Other Side of the Stream, After Which All the Mothers and Babies Would Scamper Across on the Heads and Backs of Their Accommodating Relatives. f UOing irom lNomore ae uius lo ranama ' 4 did pee in Capira one of these monkies . " jespe from one tree to another, which was ,' (he other side of a river, making me . . much to wonder. They leape where they : list, winding their tailes about a braunch : lo shake it: and when they will leape fur-:.r. fur-:.r. (Her than they can at ouce, they use a pretty devise, tying themselves by the -lilies one of another, and by this meanes - make as it wero a chaine of many: then " doe they launch themselves forth, and the frst, helpen by the force of the rest, takes '." jolde where hee list, and so hangs to a .7 tough, and so helpes all the rest, till they , be gotten up." -.: ;: What the American Museum would like to know is whether any living human be-u be-u m has really seen monkeys build a .... timian bridge of their own arms, bodies "71ud tails, as Father de Acosta says he tar them do. s t Professor Gudger has studied the sub-s-3ct with painstaking care and believes pat Father de Acosta's tale has been , tmded down from one author to 'another. ... - But he can find no scientist or native of ;'; (ie present day who will vouch for the .(nth of it. ; r t Lionel Wafer, a companion of the cele-Mated cele-Mated navigator. Captain Dampier, in his : a:" took printed in London in 1699, says that ti- crossing the isthmus they saw and ..tilled a number of monkeys, and con-j, con-j, ;. . Unaes: . . I "They are a very waggish kind of Hon-. Hon-. J'.W and plaid a thousand antick Tricks - K m march'd at any time through the :--'"Joods, skipping from Bough to Bough, a .--with the young ones hanging at the old it i i.Jnes Back, making Faces at us. To pass ,., itora lop to top of high Trees, whose 'ranches are a little too far asunder for lr Leaping, they will sometimes hang ni I jW'B by one anothers Tails in a Chain; swinging In that manner, the lower--'j.Wst catches hold of a Bough of the other t'.V J 1 u "d draWS UP tlie reSt o tnem" I in 1S62 another writer. Don Ramon Paez, fc 1 -vat r into detail as to just how the Hon-W- '.vvBr'(i8e is made, explains it as follows: C: ii j rema'"l!able is their ingenious 'i,; m of crossi"S torrents and other !f'-SiMSlreams whicn tlley often encounter ' 'tis f ceaseless perambulations through '" , Iorfst- As among men, all cannot ' C lh equaI facility, so it is also with "'' "km? ' accoriingly the leaders of the o ff' pnerally the strongest of U.e party, ;ri D 10 the spreading branches of some ;i'':t' Jmlk cttng over the stream; one of ,,V: ir,hmen twi"ts his tail firmly around a :' a"d. lettinS his body hang, seizes i l, tlle tail of the nearest comrade, who ;i' ii Pertorms the same operation v e,next and so on until a sort of il "I, lllg Pendulum is formed, which, ti i! ,7, nce to u'e laws of equilibrium slowly but constantly from theii U t eff0rt3 to reach the ooposlte tj,: hls finally achieved, the last Hf,secures himself to the most con-hi" con-hi" T' T1,e others of the chain, now tit: f 6je asea from the tree at the opposite 0: c tiler u'e stream, wade through the n - tWiit" hePed by his neighbor, as- tttev 186 by the current. Some are, ''' t'in ii occasionally drowned, the last Uticp v, chain especially, which circura- l; Prov SiPrbably given rise 10 the popu' os'1" KjJ,frb' el ultimo moro siempre se t; 'ne(.,e last monkey is sure to be ifie;t,ng on this statement, of the C!1 traveller and naturalist, Pro-J Pro-J Gudger writes: L- :"(' acount is very circumstantial, 1 1 Jt rea(ls Paez's book and sees how ' '"' 3bJn the nlain are his natural his-jU'' his-jU'' sicredrvatlons, one feels inclined to iii;r' Drnvf1Ce' Then, too. how natural is "'. ftonv about tlle drowning of the ; ' thU i At firsl 1 was Inclined to ' chva P' for wl,y was not the end '"the n the other Bide of ,hH river crossing as high above tho water the plan so daring, that at once I gave these queer bridge-makers bridge-makers my closest attention. "They were hanging hang-ing from a tall palm-tree palm-tree that leaned out over tho water. Three or four of the strongest strong-est had grasped the branches of this palm with their hands, feet and tails, and were holding on as if the fate of the monkey race depended on them. "Other monkeys had taken bold of these, and let themselves hang down as far as they could. Then oth- ers and still others, until there was a line thirty feet long and three or four nion- 1 Tl,n locr that the explanation ot tne monKey bridge may be found in a careful analysis and study of the various reports re-ports of writers and travellers. Professor Pro-fessor Gudger selects tbe details as presented by the account in Holmes's "Fourth Reader." Investigation shows that this was written by Charles Frederick Holder, a naturalist and a man of high standing, a writer of many books and a member of many distinguished scientific societies. Dr. Holder died in 1915. Summing up his conclusion. Professor Gudger says: "Let us -examine Holder's account ac-count more closely. First, it was Tho Atove Illustration, from Henri Mouhot' "Travels in tho Central Parts of Indo-Chlna, Cambodia and Laos' (1864), Purports to Be Drawn from a Sketch by That Naturalist Show-ing Show-ing the Way. in Which Apes Tease and Torment Their Greatest Enemy, the Stealthy Crocodile, by Swinging Abou His Head and Tapping Him Now and Again, Until Some One of the Frolickers More Foolhardy or Less Agile Than the Rest GcU His Paw Caught in the Trap and Vanishes Into the Alligator's Interior. ally If some were females carrying young, might look like a living chain. "I have had the T. 1 ..,.. r f ,11, .,,.. to find any traveler or explorer who has fever seen a monkey bridge, and he is unable un-able to hear of any reports from natives of the jungle who have claimed to have seen a monkey bridge. In the course of his research In regard to the monkey bridge, Professor Gudger came across many other curious and interesting in-teresting antics attributed to South Amer-' lean monkeys by various explorers, travelers, trav-elers, historians and writers. A French traveler, named Henri Mouhot, published a book in London in 1S64, in which he gave this interesting episode, which was later copied in Bacon's "Illustrated Library of Travel, Exploration and Adventure," as follows: "It is amusing, however, for one is interested inter-ested in observing the habits of animals all over the world, to see the manner in which these creatures (crocodiles) catch the apes, which sometimes take a fancy to play with them. Close to the bank lies the crocodile, his body in the water, and only his capacious mouth above the surface, ready to seize anything that may conio within reach. A troop of apes catch sight of him, seem to consult together, approach little by little, and commence their frolics, 5y turns actors and spectators. One of the most active or most impudent jumps from branch to branch, till within a respectful re-spectful distance of the crocodile, when, banging by one paw, and with the dexterity dex-terity peculiar to these animals he advances ad-vances and rptires, now giving his enemy a blow with his paw, at another time only . pretending to do so. The other apes, en-jcying en-jcying the fun, evidently wish to take a part in it; but the other branches being too high they form a sort of chain by laying hold of each other's paws, and thus swing backwards and forwards." At the present stage of the investigation investiga-tion Professor Gudger is inclined to think Great BrRain llichts Reserved. monkey of all did not cling to those above m, but was so held by them as to leave " arms and legs free He was the gymnast gym-nast of the troop, and the hero of the present exploit. "The dangling line hung so near tho trunk of the palm that the lowest had been able to push against it, and thus cause a little motion. Successive pushes had set tho rope swinging toward the opposite op-posite side of the stream. It was on one of these swings, when the end of theropa had reached as far out r.s the middle of the stream, that I was struck in the face. "Little bv little the breathing, clinging pendulum "kept gaining. Pretty soon ' it swung out so far that the leader caught a branch of a tree on the opposite banx, when, lo! there wiis a bridge in mid-air! At once there rose from all the line a chattering that must have been monkey cheers. "As soon as the leader had made good his hold, two or three monkeys ran across to heln him. This finished the bridge: so, without further ado, it was opened to the monkey public. "Then there came out of the palm tree a noisy crowd of all ages. They ran across the bridge as best they could, some on all fours, some upright, some with young monkeys on their backs, and all waving their tails and briskly jabbering, as If they were shouting to those ahead, 'Make haste, or the bridge will break!' "A very old monkey was the last to go over. Perhaps his limbs were stiff. Perhaps Per-haps he could not see very well. It was certain that he had lost the fearlessness of his youth, for he picked his way along so slowly and nervously that I could not help laughing outright. "Hearing so unusual a noise, the monkeys mon-keys who were clinging to the palm did not wait for him, but let go and swung over to the oilier side. The old fellow narrowly nar-rowly escaped a ducking. "Then followed a curious scene. Xo sooner had the bridge cleared the water than the monkeys loosened their grip upon one another. In less time than it takes to tell the story, the bridge dropned to pieces and what never happens with a common bridge the pieces betook themselves to the tops of the trees, and were soon ouL of hearing in the depth of the forest.'' Professor Gudger has endeavored to corroborate cor-roborate these stories, but has been unable Copyright, 11-19, by S;ar Coinpanv. not yet dawn, things could not be seen clearly; second, the stream was so small that the trees almost met overhead; third, the monkeys might easily have been hanging hang-ing to limbs and making swinging leaps across tbe narrow stream; fourth, in these tropical countries the vegetation along tbe streams forms such a dense iutcrwoven lungle that there is no space on the landward land-ward side for such a chain to swing back from the bank to get oscillation enough to carry it across the stream; and, finally, this account attrihntes more collective intelligence in-telligence to monkeys than they have ever been known to show. "It seems to me that the possible explanation ex-planation is to be found in the third point ' just indicated. Individual monkeys certainly cer-tainly make use of swinging branches and of great palm leaves to enable them to bridge over the space from one tree to an-oih-r. Using such a swinging fulcrum for a 'take-off thy have been known to leap thirty feet, aiighting, of course, at a lower lvel than the starting point. A procession proces-sion of monkeys making such leaps from the same point in succession, especi- sing the matter with Messrs. ieo K. Miller and George K. Cherrie, of the American MUr s-.eum of Natural History, and few men in the United States have done moro exploring explor-ing work in northern South America. Furthermore, Fur-thermore, they are not the ordinary type of travellers, but are collectors with highly trained powers of obs'-rvation. They think that tb"ro i3 nothing in the 'monkey! bridge story,' but that it has come about iu a perf"ct.ly natural way throiuii ohsei vat.iou of a procession of monkeys crossing cross-ing a ravine or stream on a pendent liana." C it science would like to sett!" the question ques-tion definitely. If any reader of this page ha.", any positive Information on the subject sub-ject tho authorities of the Ar,ier::e.n Mu-Eoum Mu-Eoum would be glad to hear from him. r |