Meanwhile several of the comadrejas—engineers, no doubt—ran along the bank, examining the trees on both sides.
“At length they all collected around a tall cotton-wood tree that grew over the narrowest part of the stream, and twenty or thirty of them scampered up its trunk.
“On reaching a high point, the foremost, a strong fellow, ran out upon a limb, and taking several turns of his tail around it, slipped off and hung head downwards. The next on the limb, also a stout one, climbed down the body of the first, and whipping his tail tightly round the neck and forearm of the latter, dropped off in his turn, and hung, head down. The third repeated the maneuver upon the second, and the fourth upon the third, and so on, until the last one upon the string rested his forepaws upon the ground.
“The living chain now commenced swinging backward and forward, like the pendulum of a clock. The motion was slight at first, but gradually increased, the lowermost monkey striking his hands violently on the earth as he passed the tangent of the oscillating curve. Several others upon the limbs above aided the movement.
“This continued until the monkey at the end of the chain was thrown among the branches of a tree on the opposite bank. Here, after two or three vibrations, he clutched a limb and held fast. This movement was executed adroitly, just at the culminating point of the oscillation, in order to save the intermediate links from the violence of a too sudden jerk.
“The chain was fast at both ends, forming a complete suspension bridge, over which the whole troop, to the number of four or five hundred, passed with the rapidity of thought.
“The troop was now on the other side, but how were the animals forming the bridge to get themselves over? This was the question which suggested itself. Manifestly by number one letting go his tail. But then the point d'appui on the other side was much lower down, and number one, with half a dozen of his neighbors, would be dashed against the opposite bank, or soused into the water.
“Here, then, was a problem, and we waited with some curiosity for its solution. It was soon solved. A monkey was now seen attaching his tail to the lowest on the bridge, another girded him in a similar manner, and another and so on until a dozen more were added to the string. These last were all powerful fellows, and running up a high limb, they lifted the bridge into a position almost horizontal.
“Then a scream from the last monkey of the new formation warned the tail-end that all was ready, and the next moment the whole chain was swung over, and landed safely on the opposite bank. The lowermost links now dropped off like a melting candle, while the higher ones leaped on the branches and came down by the trunk. The whole troop then scampered off into the chapparal and disappeared.”