398 Zoological Society. 



Reverting finally to the ancient notices which might relate to 

 the great anthropoid ape of Africa, Prof. Owen referred to his first 

 Memoir, of February, 1848, in which was quoted (Trans. Zool. Soc, 

 vol. iii. p. 4 18) Dr. Falconer's * Translation of the Voyage of Hanno,' 

 (London, 1797) with his dissertation vindicating the authenticity 

 of the " Periplus." Professor Owen had lately been favoured by 

 the venerable Bishop Maltby, the first amongst our Greek scholars, 

 with the following translation of the passage supposed to allude to 

 the species in question : — " On the third day, having sailed from 

 thence, passing the streams of fire, we came to a bay called the Horn 

 of the South. In the recess there was an island like the first, having 

 a lake, and in this there was another island full of wild men. But 

 much the greater part of them were women, with hairy bodies, whom 

 the interpreters called * Gorillas.' But, pursuing them, we were not 

 able to take the men ; they all escaped, being able to climb the 

 precipices, and defended themselves with pieces of rock. But three 

 women (females), who bit and scratched those who led them, were 

 not willing to follow. However, having killed them, we flayed them, 

 and conveyed the skins to Carthage ; for we did not sail any further, 

 as provisions began to fail." This encounter indicates, therefore, 

 the southernmost point on the west coast of Africa reached by the 

 Carthaginian navigator. 



To the inquiry by Bishop Maltby, how far the newly-discovered 

 great ape of Africa bore upon the question of the authenticity of the 

 Periplus, Prof. Owen had replied : — " The size and form of the great 

 ape, now called * Gorilla,' would suggest to Hanno and his crew no 

 other idea of its nature than that of a kind of human being ; but 

 the climbing faculty, the hairy body, and skinning of the dead speci- 

 mens, strongly suggest that they were large anthropoid apes. The fact 

 that such apes, having the closest observed resemblance to the negro, 

 being of human stature and with hairy bodies, do still exist on the 

 west coast of Africa, renders it highly probable that such were the 

 creatures which Hanno saw, captured, and called * Gorullai.' " 



The brief observation made by Battell in w^est tropical Africa, 

 1590, recorded in Purchas's "Pilgrimages, or Relations of the 

 World," 1748, of the nature and habits of the large human-like 

 ape which he calls "Pongo," more decidedly refers to the Gorilla. 

 Other notices, as by Nieremberg and Bosman, applied by BufFon to 

 Battell's Pongo, were deemed valueless by Cuvier, who altogether 

 rejected the conclusions of his great predecessor as to the existence of 

 any such ape. *' This name of Pongo or Boggo, given in Africa to 

 the Chimpanzee or to the Mandril, has been applied," writes Cuvier, 

 " by Buffon to a pretended great species of Ourang-utan, which was 

 nothing more than the imaginary product of his combinations." 

 After the publication of Cuvier's ' Regne Animal,' the supposed 

 species was, by the high authority of its author, banished from 

 natural history ; it has only been authentically reintroduced since 

 the intelligent attention of Dr. Savage was directed to the skull 

 •which he first saw at the Gaboon in 1847, and took Professor 

 Owen's opinion upon. 



