They Axe Large Monkeys With Long Tails, And Are
Beautifully Marked With Various Shades Of Grey And Brown, And Their
Large, Fleshy, Red Noses Give Them An Extraordinary Appearance.
One of them did a performance that astonished me.
We saw a group of
them on a branch over the river about forty yards ahead of us, when
one of them jumped into the middle of the river and coolly swam to a
hanging creeper up which it climbed, none the worse for its voluntary
bath. This was the only time that I had ever seen a monkey swim, but
the natives assured me that these monkeys are very good swimmers. It
struck me as being a very risky performance, as this river was full
of crocodiles.
I saw on this river a wonderful orchid growing on large trees. This
was a GRAMMATOPHYLLUM with bulbs some times over eight feet in
length. The length of the name is certainly suitable for so large
an orchid. I saw plenty of water-birds, including white egrets and
a long-necked diver which is called the "snake-bird," owing to its
long neck projecting lout of the water and thus greatly resembling a
snake. I shot several of each kind of bird, plucking the fine plumes
from the backs of the egrets. We ate some of the divers that evening
and found them first-class food, tasting much like goose. We later in
the day disturbed a whole colony of these water-birds feeding on the
carcase of a large stag in the river, and the smell was very strong
for some distance.
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