277 



and diflicultly balanced swinging gait. They are shy, though 

 they sometimes come into the woods in the neighborhood of vil- 

 lages in search of berries ; they do not climb trees, except when 

 young, and both sexes repose on the ground, the female reclining 

 against a tree, and the male against some convenient stone ; they 

 never make any shelter for themselves, and never repose twice in 

 the same place. The gorilla sometimes roars by himself for 

 hours at a time. He had never seen them erect their crests 

 when angry and about to attack ; unlike the chimpanzee, the go- 

 rilla is perfectly untamable. They are found for three hundred 

 miles eastward from the table-lands, most abundantly where grow 

 the pineapples, nuts, and wild canes, upon which they feed ; their 

 food is entirely vegetable ; they are generally found in moist 

 places. The male gorilla is born black, and remains black 

 through life ; the chimpanzee changes from yellowish coppery to 

 black, but the gorilla is the most shining black ; the female is 

 reddish black ; the back and breast are bare ; it grows gray, 

 and it is said perfectly white, in old age. They have one young 

 one at a birth. 



The natives are fond of their flesh ; the brains are held also in 

 high esteem as fetiches to inspire the hunters with courage ; they 

 are called by some tribes " men-of-the-woods," and are by some 

 considered transformed men. He gave several instances of their 

 ferocity and strength ; the stories of their entering villages, driv- 

 ing away the inhabitants, carrying off women, seizing travellers 

 and drawing them into trees by their feet, are all fables. 



The nschego is known by its bald head. This species always 

 lives in the trees, in which it makes shelters of branches and 

 vines like an umbrella ; they always select slender trees for their 

 habitations, and such as do not touch other trees with their 

 branches, and place them at least twenty feet from the ground, — 

 probably to secure themselves against the attacks of animals. 

 They are white when young, becoming dark with age. 



Dr. B. J. Jeffries exhibited a table, which he had made 

 to assist in determining the question of the degeneracy 

 of the American race at the present time. The table 

 comprised the age, weight, and height of 100 men be- 

 longing to a military company of this city, arranged in 

 series of 25, as follows : — 



