218 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
The gorilla was somewhere near the bottom of that 
fall. The natives insisted that it was impossible to 
get to the dead animal. To go straight down was 
impossible. But I felt that there might be a chance 
to work along sideways in a patch of vegetation until 
we could get down to a lower level. By working back 
and forth on the face of the mountain side in this way 
I hoped to reach the dead gorilla. However, I soon 
realized that if I wanted to try this somewhat hazard- 
ous experiment I should have to lead the way, for 
the blacks had nothing greater than a few days’ wages 
at stake while I had one of the prizes of a long and 
expensive expedition. So I swung down on the over- 
hanging roots of a tree and began the descent with 
the natives following. It took a surprisingly long 
time for us to get down the 200 feet, and it finally 
turned out that the route that I took led off io 
one side where I could not reach the gorilla when I 
had descended to her level. Twenty or thirty feet 
farther down I managed to cross to the stream-bed 
and then went up the stream to the bottom of the 
falls and from there to where the body lay. Where 
the stream-bed was steepest, we literally had the water 
falling on our heads as we scrambled up. 
It was a tough job skinning and skeletonizing her. 
In the first place, I was tired and she was heavy, and 
in the second place if she was turned over with any- 
thing but the utmost care she was likely to roll off 
down into the chasm below. Nor could I get much 
assistance from the boys, for there was only room 
enough for a man or two to help. However, in some 
