, seldom sitting
still for a couple of minutes, while others are retired and gloomy in
their dispositions, and some are most fickle and uncertain. The fair
monkey, though one of the most beautiful of the tribe, is of the latter
description, as the following story will testify:--

"An animal of this class, which from its extreme beauty and gentleness
was allowed to ramble at liberty about a ship, soon became a great
favourite among the crew, and in order to make him perfectly happy, as
they imagined, they procured him a wife. For some weeks he was a devoted
husband, and showed her every attention and respect. He then grew cool,
and became jealous of any kind of civility shown her by the master of
the vessel, and began to use her with much cruelty. His treatment made
her wretched and dull; and she bore the spleen of her husband with that
fortitude which is characteristic of the female sex of the human
species. And pug, like the lords of the creation, was up to deceit, and
practised pretended kindness to his spouse, to effect a diabolical
scheme, which he seemed to premeditate. One morning, when the sea ran
very high, he seduced her aloft, and drew her attention to an object at
some distance from the yard-arm; her attention being fixed, he all of a
sudden applied his paw to her rear, and canted her into the sea, where
she fell a victim to his cruelty. This seemed to afford him high
gratification, for he descended in great spirits."

"Oh, what a wretched creature, Uncle Thomas. I wonder the sailors did
not throw him into the sea also."

"Stay, Frank, you are somewhat too hasty. He deserved certainly to be
punished; but I doubt whether it would have been proper to have put him
to death for his misdeed. All monkeys are not, however, equally cruel;
some of them, indeed, are remarkable for the instinctive kindness which
they evince towards their young. When threatened by danger, they mount
them on their back, or clasp them firmly to their breast, to which the
young creatures secure themselves, by means of their long and powerful
arms, so as to permit of their parent moving about, and springing from
branch to branch, with nearly as much facility as if she were perfectly
free from all incumbrance."

"Oh, I can readily believe that, Uncle Thomas. One day lately, at the
Zoological Gardens, I saw two monkeys clasping a young one between them,
to keep it warm. They seemed so fond of it."

"Yes, Frank, I have also seen them occup