GORILLA 217 



of the huge superincumbent body. He balances himself by swinging 

 his arms, somewhat as sailors walk on ship-board; and the vast 

 paunch, the round bullet-head joined awkwardly to the trunk with 

 scarce a vestige of neck, and the great muscular arms, and deep 

 cavernous breast, give to this waddle an ungainly horror, which adds 

 to his ferocity of appearance. At the same time the deep-set gray eyes 

 sparkle out with gloomy malignity; the features are contorted in 

 hideous wrinkles ; and the slight, sharply cut lips, drawn up, reveal the 

 long fangs and the powerful jaws in which a human limb would be 

 crushed as a biscuit. 



"Fortunately the gorilla dies as easily as a man. A shot m the 

 breast, if fairly delivered, is sure to bring him down. He falls forward 

 on his face, his long muscular arms outstretched, and uttering with 

 his last breath a hideous death cry, half roar, half shriek, which, while 

 it announces his safety to the hunter, yet tingles his ears with a 

 dreadful note of human agony." 



The walk of the Gorilla is usually on all-fours, not erect. "In this 

 posture its arms are so long, that the head and breast are raised con- 

 siderably, and as it runs the hind legs are brought far beneath the 

 body. The leg and arm on the same side move together, which gives 

 the beast a curious waddle. It can run at great speed." 



The adult Gorilla is untamable, and its strength very great. When 

 erect the knees are bent and the back has a "stoop forward." 



The natives eat the meat which is dark red and tough, and the 

 skin is thick and strong. The height of the Gorilla varies greatly and 

 individuals have been taken from 5 feet 2 inches to over six feet. 

 The color changes with age, old Gorillas, as the negroes told Du Chaillu 

 are quite gray all over. 



There seem to be really only two species of Gorilla and those 

 which have been separated as distinct, and almost invariably given 

 specific rank by their describers, can only properly be considered, if 

 separable at all, as races of G. gorilla. The individual variation 

 observed in crania is often very great and occasionally, as in the type 

 skull of G. g. jacobi, is extraordinary, but if we permit ourselves to 

 recognize such a skull as proofs of a distinct species, though a resident 

 of the same geographical district as the species from which it was 

 separated, we throw open wide the door through which error and 

 confusion can easily pass, the result being a multiplication of forms 

 unworthy of serious consideration. 



