. The evolution of the earth and its inhabitants; a series delivered before the Yale chapter of the Sigma xi during the academic year 1916-1917. erating from the higher condition of their commonancestor with mankind, the chimpanzee least, the gorilla mostof all. The gibbons (Fig. 29), however, of which there areseveral species, while the most remote from mankind in actualrelationship, have probably retained in greater degree thanany others the habits and development of the anthropoid stem-form. They are wonderful acrobats, their relatively small sizeand immensely long and powerful arms lending
. The evolution of the earth and its inhabitants; a series delivered before the Yale chapter of the Sigma xi during the academic year 1916-1917. erating from the higher condition of their commonancestor with mankind, the chimpanzee least, the gorilla mostof all. The gibbons (Fig. 29), however, of which there areseveral species, while the most remote from mankind in actualrelationship, have probably retained in greater degree thanany others the habits and development of the anthropoid stem-form. They are wonderful acrobats, their relatively small sizeand immensely long and powerful arms lending themselves tothe full measure of arboreal progression. The gibbons areoriental in distribution, living in the wooded regions of south-eastern Asia and the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, and Java. It were well to dwell for a moment upon the locomotivemethods of these apes which, instead of running upon theupper side of the branches, as do most arboreal forms, swingbeneath them by means of their hands. This method of loco-motion has been called brachiation (Lat. brachium, arm) andin all probability took its rise with the earliest anthropoids,. FIG. 28.—Gorilla, Gorilla gorilla. From TheAmerican Natural History, by William ; copyright, 1904, 1914, by WilliamT. Hornaday; published by Charles ScribnersSons. AND ITS INHABITANTS 141 reaching its highest development in the modern gibbon. Onthe ground, the gibbon walks erect, either touching the knucklesof the hands to the ground or with the arms held above thehead. The gait is quick, waddling, with no elasticity of step,and they are soon overtaken. But in the trees they are virtu-ally transformed, for their hand leaps are prodigious, twelve,eighteen, one authority says no less than forty feet beingcleared, and that for hours at a time. Fully to appreciatewhat this means one should compare it with the precisemechanical stride of a racehorse, for whereas in the horsethere is a practical uniformity of conditions stride after str
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