Shortly after, we came suddenly upon quite
a new feature in the scene -- a strange innovation of liveliness in
the midst of solitude.
At a bend in the road, what should appear almost over our heads but
a troop of about a hundred monkeys, crashing through the firs and
chestnuts, and bounding in eager haste from tree to tree, in their
desire to escape from a party of natives coming from the opposite
direction. They were large brown monkeys, of the kind called lungoors,
standing, some of them, three feet high, and having tails considerably
longer than themselves. Their faces were jet black, fringed with
light grey whiskers, which gave them a most comical appearance.; and
as they jumped along from tree to tree, sometimes thirty and forty
feet, through the air, with their small families following as best
they could, they made the whole forest resound with the crashing of
the branches, and amused us not a little by their aerial line of march.
After crossing a dashing mountain-torrent by a rude bridge of trees
thrown across it, we arrived at the village of Burrumgulla.
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