a tree as high as a house, and not
one will miss his footing; yet now and then a monkey has a fall. The
most curious kind of monkey is found in Borneo--the Ourang-outang; but it
is one of the least active; it climbs carefully from branch to branch,
always holding by its hands before it makes a spring. These
Ourang-outangs are not as large as a man, yet they are much stronger. All
the monkeys sleep in the trees; in a minute a monkey makes its bed by
twisting a few branches together.

Beneath the trees--two sorts of animals, very unlike each other, roam
about,--the clumsy hog, and the graceful deer. As the _largest_ sort of
_monkeys_ is found in Borneo, so is the _smallest_ sort of _deer_. There
is a deer that has legs only eight inches long. There is no more elegant
creature in the world than this bright-eyed, swift-footed little deer.

JAPAN.

This is the name of a great empire. There are three principal islands.
One of these is very long, and very narrow; it is about a thousand miles
long,--much longer than Great Britain, but not nearly as broad. Yet the
three islands _together_ are larger than our island. There is a fourth
island near the Japan islands, called Jesso, and it is filled with
Japanese people.

You know it is difficult to get into China; but it is far more difficult
to get into Japan. The emperor has boats always watching round the coast,
to prevent strangers coming into his country. These boats are so made,
that they cannot go far from the shore. No Japanese ship is ever seen
floating in a foreign harbor. If it be difficult to get _into_ Japan, it
is also difficult to get _out_ of her. There is a law condemning to
_death_ any Japanese who leaves his country. The Chinese also are
forbidden to leave their land; but _they_ do not mind their laws as well
as the Japanese mind _theirs_.

I shall not be able to tell you much about Japan; as strangers may not go
there, nor natives come from it. English ships very seldom go to Japan,
because they are so closely watched. The guard-boats surround them night
and day. When it is dark, lanterns are lighted, in order the better to
observe the strangers. One English captain entreated permission to land,
that he might observe the stars with his instruments, in order afterwards
to make maps; but he could only get leave to land on a little island
where there were a few fishermen's huts; and all the time he was there,
the Japanese officers kept their eye upon h