HANNffS VOYAGE. 



15 



partially bent. The monkeys, then, are just quadrupeds, although their paws are more per- 

 fectly developed than those of the generality of animals. 



We will now proceed to our examples of the Quadrumanous animals. 



SIMIAD^E, OR APES. 



The Apes are at once distinguished from the other Quadrumana by the absence of those 

 cheek-pouches which are so usefully employed as temporary larders by those monkeys which 

 possess them ; by the total want of tails, and of those callosities on the hinder quarters which 

 are so conspicuously characteristic of the baboons. Besides these external differences there 

 are several distinctions to be found in the interior anatomy both of the bones and the vital 

 organs. 



The first in order, as well as the largest of the Apes, is the enormous ape from Western 

 Africa, the Gorilla, the skeleton of which has already been given. This animal is compara- 

 tively new to modern zoologists, and very little is at present known of its habits. The first 

 modern writer who brought the Gorilla before the notice of the public, seems to be Mr. Bow- 

 dich, the well-known African traveller ; for it is evidently of the Gorilla that he speaks under 

 the name of Ingheena. The natives of the Gaboon and its vicinity use the name Gina, when 

 mentioning the Gorilla. The many tales, too, that are told of the habits, the gigantic strength, 

 and the general appearance of the Ingheena, are precisely those which are attributed to the 

 Gorilla. 



Of the Ingheena, Mrs. Lee (formerly Mrs. Bowdich) speaks as follows: "It is in equa- 

 torial Africa that the most powerful of all the Quadrumana live, far exceeding the orang- 

 outan, and even the pongo of Borneo. 



" Mr. Bowdich and myself were the first to revive and confirm a long-forgotten and vague 

 report of the existence of such a creature, and many thought that, as we ourselves had not 

 seen it, we had been deceived by the natives. They assured us that these huge creatures 

 walk constantly on their hind feet, and never yet were taken alive ; that they watch the 

 actions of men, and imitate them as nearly as possible. Like the ivory hunters, they pick up 

 the fallen tusks of elephants, but not knowing where to deposit them, they carry their burdens 

 about until they themselves drop, and even die from fatigue ; that they built huts nearly in 

 the shape of those of men, but live on the outside ; and that when one of their children dies, 

 the mother carries it in her arms until it falls to pieces ; that one blow of their paw will kill 

 , a man, and that nothing can exceed their ferocity." 



Its existence was evidently known to some adventurous voyagers more than two thousand 

 years ago, and a record has been preserved of these travels. 



Somewhere about the year 350 B. c., the Carthaginians, then a most powerful and flourish- 

 ing nation, organized a naval expedition for the purpose of examining the coasts and of 

 founding colonies. The command of the fleet, which consisted of sixty large vessels contain- 

 ing nearly thirty thousand men and women, together with provisions and other necessaries, 

 was entrusted to Hanno, who wrote memoirs of the voyage in a small work that is well known 

 by the title of the "Periplus," or the Circumnavigation of Hanno. In the course of this 

 voyage he founded seven colonies, and after advancing as far as the modern Sierra Leone, was 

 forced to return for want of provisions. 



The whole treatise is one of great interest, especially in the present day, when travels of 

 discovery in Africa have been prosecuted with so much energy. The passage, however, which 

 bears on the present question is briefly as follows. After narrating the meeting with these 

 creatures on an island off the west coast of Africa, he proceeds to say : "There were many 

 more females than males, all equally covered with hair on all parts of the body. The inter- 

 preters called them GORILLAS. On pursuing them we could not succeed in taking a single 

 male ; they all escaped with astonishing swiftness, and threw stones at us ; but we took three 

 females, who defended themselves with so much violence that we were obliged to kill them, 

 hut we brought their skins stuffed with straw to Carthage." It is evident that Hanno (or 



