June, 1931 



EVOLUTION 



Page three 



In the Land of the Gorilla 



By WILLIAM KING GREGORY 



Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, Columbia Unirersity; Curator of Dept of Comparatire 



Anatomy, American Museum of Natural History 



'T~'HE African Anatomical Expedirion of Columbia Uni- 

 versify and the American Museum of Natural History was 

 initiated by Dr. Dudley J. Morton, Associate Professor of 

 Anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 



For some time past Professor Osborn and the writer had 

 been engaged in a lively but always friendly scientific debate 

 bearing on the relative nearness or remoteness of man's rela- 

 tionships to the existing anthropoid ape stock. Professor Mor- 

 ton, Professor McGregor and others also had taken part in 

 the discussion, but all recognized the need for more compre- 

 hensive comparative studies on the anatomy of the anthro- 

 poid apes, especially of fully adult gorillas. Hundreds of 

 gorilla skulls and skins have been described by specialists, but 

 there is an almost complete dearth of well preserved adult 

 specimens in the anatomical laboratories of the world. 



An expedition to secure this material would give to several 

 specialists whose interest centered more or less upon the grand 

 problem of man's origin, an exceptional opportunity to study 

 living anthropoid apes in their natural environment, and to 

 bring back to their laboratories and classrooms something of 

 the teeming pageant of Africa. 



The leader of the expedition was Henry C. Raven, Asso- 

 ciate Curator of the Department of Comparative Anatomy 

 in the American Museum of Natural History and Lecturer 

 in Zoology in Columbia University. Mr. Raven is well known 

 in museum circles for his previous zoological expeditions in 

 Borneo, Celebes, Australia, Greenland and Africa. 



only now completing its field work. Its launching encountered 

 serious initial difficulties. Owing to the praiseworthy policy of 

 the Belgian government to protect their gorillas, our expedi- 

 tion only after the greatest efi^orts received permits to kill two 

 adult mountain gorillas in some region outside the Pare Na- 

 tional Albert. 



We decided to search for our gorillas in the mountains south- 

 west of Lake Kivu. If the hunter can get near enough it is 

 comparatively easy to kill a gorilla, even in the almost impene- 

 trable thickets in which they are often found. A dead gorilla 

 can easily be skinned with the help of natives and his dis- 

 membered carcass can be carried back to camp on poles or on 

 the heads of porters. But we were not after gorilla skins or 

 skeletons; we wanted only the complete animal. Thus it eventu- 

 ally proved necessary to carry a dead gorilla weighing about 

 four hundred pounds down a very steep, rough mountain side 

 through many miles of tangled jungle. This was successfully 

 done by Mr. Raven and his porters after he had stopped a 

 charge by an infuriated male gorilla within fifteen feet of his 

 rifle. Raven found, in fact, that this gorilla resented being fol- 

 lowed and did not hesitate to rush at the intruder, who fortu- 

 nately for himself was quick and sure with his rifle. He was 

 thus able to shoot the animal through the head, which was the 

 only way of avoiding injury to the main blood-vessels of the 

 body. 



At the base camp, after tying off the arteries of the head, 

 Raven was able to inject the rest of the body with preservanve 



Professor J. H. McGregor, of the Department of Zoology, fluid. This fluid, contained in a metal tank fastened on top of a 

 who may be called the senior naturalist of . the expedition, is stout pole, came down a long rubber tube and was forced by 



well known for his carefully 

 considered reconstructions of 

 the external appearance of the 

 extinct races of man. 



Associate Professor E. T. 

 Engle of the Department of 

 Anatomy, College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, is an authority 

 on the anatomy and physiology 

 of the mammalian reproductive 

 system. 



The present writer, besides 

 sharing in the interests of his 

 colleagues, is especially con- 

 cerned with problems relating 

 to the earlier history of the 

 ^nthropoids: How are they re- 

 lated to the fossil anthropoids 

 whose jaws and teeth have been 

 found in various parts of 

 Europe, Asia and Africa? How 

 did they first get into Africa? 



This expedition, which left 

 New York m May, 1929, is *excerpts from march. 1931, Columbia university quarterly. 



Courtssy American Museum oj Natural History 



One of two gorillas, captured in the Kivu, photographed 

 where he fell, after brush and vines had been cleared away. 

 Left, Dr. McGregor; right, Mr. Raven; standing. Dr. Gregory. 



gravity into the great artery on 

 the inner side of the thigh, 

 whence it quickly penetrated to 

 all parts of the body. The head 

 was then separately injected 

 through the carotid artery. This 

 well preserved specimen was 

 subsequently shipped to New 

 York and is still in fine condi- 

 tion. Its anatomy is now be- 

 ing studied by several specialists. 

 The second gorilla, also a 

 male, was secured by Raven 

 near our camp in the same gen- 

 eral region (southwest of Lake 

 Kivu). It also weighed about 

 four hundred pounds and was 

 eight feet, six inches across the 

 tips of its outstretched hands. 

 Its digestive tract contained 

 many bucketsful of green vege- 

 table matter, as the gorilla is 

 exclusively a vegetarian. The 

 vermiform appendix was very 



