214 GORILLA 



gray grading into black towards ankles and on feet ; hands black ; no 

 beard ; top of head black, nape mixed black and red. 



Measurements. Height, 5 ft. 10 in. Average male, 5 ft. 3 in. 

 Skull : total length, 330 ; occipito-nasal length, 235 ; intertemporal 

 width. 78.1 ; breadth of braincase, 104.3; median length of nasals, 46; 

 palatal length, 100; Hensel, 183; zygomatic width, 170; length of upper 

 molar series, 68 ; length of mandible, 185 ; length of lower molar series, 

 80. 



The Gorilla, the largest and most ferocious of all the great Apes, 

 was the last one made known to Science. Rumors of a huge Ape exist- 

 ing in Africa had prevailed for a long time but it was not until 1846 that 

 the Rev. Dr. J. L. Wilson discovered a skull which he gave to Dr. 

 Savage of Boston, from which Drs. Savage and Jeflries published 

 the first account of this remarkable animal. Other memoirs followed 

 as additional material was obtained, and at length the entire skeleton 

 was described by Prof. Owen (I. c). Hanno, somewhere about the 

 sixth century B. C. seems to have been the first to have met with the 

 huge Apes during his celebrated voyage beyond the Pillar of Her- 

 cules, and on an island in a bay he called the "Horn of the South." 

 This island contained a lake in which was an island full of wild hairy 

 men. Three 'women' were captured the 'men' all getting away, and 

 these fought so savagely they were obliged to kill them, preserving the 

 skins which were brought to Carthage and placed in a temple of Juno 

 and were still there when the city was destroyed. 



Gorillas were not supposed to be gregarious, and Du Chaillu, as 

 will be noticed in the following extract from his first book stated that 

 they were not, but in "Ashango Land" he changes his opinion, from 

 his experience on the Fernand Vaz, where he saw Gorillas assembled 

 together in considerable numbers. In "Ashango-Land" the following 

 is recorded, p. 56 : "A woman, belonging to a neighboring village, had 

 told her people that she had seen two squads of female gorillas, some of 

 them accompanied by their young ones in her plantain field. The 

 men resolved to go in chase of them, so they armed themselves with 

 guns, axes and spears and sallied forth. The situation was very 

 favorable for the hunters; they formed a line across the narrow strip 

 of land and pressed forward, driving the animals to the edge of the 

 water. When they came in sight of them they made all the noise in 

 their power, and thus bewildered the gorillas, who were shot or beaten 

 down in their endeavors to escape. There were eight adult females 

 altogether, but not a single male. The negroes thought the males were 



