Page four 



EVOLUTION 



June, 1931 



human looking. Carefully prepared molds of the head and 

 bust, hands and feet of this animal were made by Professor 

 McGregor in the field, while its finger and toe prints were 

 recorded by Professor Engle and the writer. 



While in this mountain-forest region the members of the 

 expedition made many excursions into the jungle and forest 

 in the endeavor to get near enough to see the gorillas. Native 

 paths traverse the forest in various directions but the gorillas 

 in this neighborhood are as a rule exceedingly wary and diffi- 

 cult to approach. Nevertheless the members of the party 

 enjoyed a number of opportunities of seeing them, although 

 the photographic conditions proved very unsatisfactory. Late 

 one afternoon, for example, we saw and heard them making 

 their beds for the night. Some made a rough oval depression 

 in the thicket on the ground. Others, including one or more 

 adults, slowly climbed the tangle of vines and branches and 

 settled down in the large "nests" in the trees. The next morn- 

 ing our efforts to secure motion or still pictures of the same 

 party of gorillas were defeated by their persistent hiding in 

 the near-by thicket, although we could catch glimpses of one 

 of them beating its chest. 



After a short side trip into the forest north of Stanleyville, 

 in the heart of the Belgian Congo, the expedition proceeded 

 down the river and by steamer up the west coast to Douala in 

 French Cameroon, thence inland into the rough, hilly country. 



In this region the gorillas live in small bands, roaming at 

 will wherever the forests have not yet been destroyed and some- 

 times invading abandoned banana fields. As we did not ap- 

 prove of organized drives, which have often resulted in the 

 slaughter of a number of gorillas by the natives, Mr. Raven 

 preferred to rely solely upon his own efforts supplemented by 

 those of a few native hunters, who wandered with him in the 

 forest in search of the elusive gorillas. His task again proved 

 very difficult, partly on account of the wandering habits of 

 gorillas and the difficulty of locating them in hundreds of miles 

 of forest, partly because it was necessary to get close enough to 

 shoot the animal through the head, for reasons already ex- 

 plained. In the dry season the animals heard the crackling 

 of leaves long before the hunter could get near and when they 

 started off they left no visible track on account of the padded 

 surface of their soles. In the wet season the country is inun- 

 dated with an enormous rainfall, which changes the streams 



into torrents and makes traveling very difficult. Thus it hajj- 

 pened that a collector of long experience and exceptional ability 

 was baffled month after month in his unceasing efforts to ac- ^ 

 complish the objects of the expedition. In the end, however, 

 his patience and skill won through and the anatomists of the 

 world will be indebted to him for one of the rarest prizes that 

 could come into the laboratories, the well preserved bodies of 

 several full-grown gorillas. 



That these gorillas may have found their way into the Congo 

 forest from the northeast is suggested by the following facts: 

 first, the jaws and teeth of fossil anthropoid apes have been 

 found in Spain, France, Austria, Egypt, India, in formations 

 of late Tertiary age; secondly, some of these fossil types (of 

 species named Dryopithecus fontani and Dryopithecus rhen- 

 anus) show certain significant resemblances on the one hand to 

 the teeth of the gorilla and on the other to those of the chim- 

 panzee; thirdly, many other modern African mammals appear 

 to be descended from, or closely related to, extinct species 

 known from fossil bones found in Tertiary deposits of southern 

 Europe may be found today in Africa; fourthly, it is known 

 from fossil remains that in Miocene times various mammals 

 apparently of European or Asiatic derivation lived in East 

 Africa. But although the African anthropoid apes, along with 

 other mammals, seem to have been derived from Europe or 

 Asia, we do not know why the lowland or West African gorilla 

 are now found only on opposite sides of the Congo forest, 

 or why there is today a long stretch of forest territory between 

 them which is occupied by the chimpanzees but not by gorillas. 



In conclusion, it is much too early to summarize the ulti- 

 mate scientific results of the expedition. The material which is 

 now available is being studied in connection with a general 

 review of the comparative anatomy of the higher primates. 

 Later, from all the available data we shall attempt to compile 

 a revised and fairly compact account of the chief resemblances 

 and differences between the gorilla and other primates, includ- 

 ing man. It may reasonably be hoped that this analysis may 

 contribute somewhat to a more precise evaluation of conflicting 

 theories as to the time when, and the place where, and perhaps 

 some of the reasons why, man's ancestors became recognizably 

 different from their anthropoid cousins; but as in the case of 

 many another scientific inquiry, the unforseen results are just 

 as likely to prove to be the most important. 



Hunting the Gorilla 



By HENRY C. RAVEN 

 Associate Curator, Comparative and Human Anatomy, American Museum 



A s soo.M as it was dawn we were up and shortly afterward 

 ■**■ set out to hunt. Four Batwa pygmies, professional hunters, 

 accompanied me. It was delightful to go into the forest with 

 these little people, who understood the forest, whose home it 

 was. We first climbed up the moutain through a mass of cold, 

 wet bracken, then descended into a ravine through virgin for- 

 est so dark that it seemed like twilight. After about a half- 

 hour of walking, very difficult on accoimt of the steep and 

 slippery groimd, we came upon gorilla tracks and saw the re- 

 mains of chewed-up stems. About an hour from the time we 

 began to follow the trail we were passing diagonally down a 



*EXCERPTS FROM MAY-JUNE, 1931, NATURAL HISTORY. 



Steep slope toward a tiny stream. Across the ravine sixty ot 

 seventy yards away, we saw the vegetation move and we caught 

 glimpses of an animal between the branches. Then we must 

 have been seen or heard, for there was a sudden short bark. 

 We followed across the stream and up the steep slope, climb- 

 ing with difficulty where the gorillas could pass with ease. ItC 

 was much more difficult for me, with shoes, than for the bare- 

 footed, strong-toed, unclad natives, and still easier for gorillas 

 with powerful bodies, short legs, and long arms. Man's long 

 legs are suited to the erect posture and not well adapted for 

 going through underbrush, where he must often be doubled up. 

 We were now getting close to the gorillas; we knew there 



