87 



quate fact, and in contravention of most of those to be deduced 

 from M. Lartet's figures of the fossils. Those parts of the Dryo- 

 pitliecus merely shew and the humerus in a striking manner its 

 nearer approach to the gibbons. The most probable conjecture 

 being that it bore to them, in regard to size, the like relations 

 which Dr Lund's Protopithecrus bore to the existing Mycetes. 

 Whether, therefore, strata of such high antiquity as the miocene 

 may reveal to us ' forms in any degree intermediate between the 

 chimpanzee and man' awaits an answer from discoveries yet to 

 be made ; and the anticipation that the fossil world ' may here- 

 after supply new osteological links between man and the highest 

 known quadrumana' may be kept in abeyance until that world 

 has furnished us with the proofs that a species did formerly exist 

 which came as near to man as does the orang, the chimpanzee, or 

 the gorilla. 



Of the nature and habits of the last-named species, which really 

 offers the nearest approach to man of any known ape, recent or 

 fossil, the lecturer had received manv statements from individuals 



J V 



resident at or visitors to the Gaboon, from, which he selected the 

 following as most probable, or least questionable. 



Gorilla-land is a richly wooded extent of the western part of 

 Africa, traversed by the rivers Danger and Gaboon, and extending 

 from the equator to the 10th or 15th degree of south latitude. 

 The part \vhere the gorilla has been most frequently met with 

 presents a succession of hill and dale, the heights crowned with 

 lofty trees, the valleys covered by coarse grass, with partial scrub 

 or scattered shrubs. Fruit trees of various kinds abound both on 

 the hills and in the valleys; some that are crude and uiicared for 

 by the negroes are sought out and greedily eaten by the gorillas, 

 and as different kinds come to maturity at different seasons, they 

 afford the great denizen of the woods a successive and unfailing 

 supply of these indigenous fruit trees. I am able through the 

 contributions of kind and zealous correspondents to specify the 

 following : 



The palm-nut (Elais guiniensis) of which the gorillas greatly 

 affect the fruit and upper part of the stipe, called the l cabbage.' 

 The negroes of the Gaboon have a tradition that their forefathers 

 first learnt to eat the 'cabbage,' from seeing the gorilla eat it, 

 concluding that what was good for him must be good for man. 



The 'ginger-bread tree' (Parinarium excelsum), which bears a 

 plum-like fruit. 



