THE LONE MALE OF KARISIMBI 231 
and massive in the middle ground, smouldering, too, 
but less demonstrative than her sister, Nyamlagira. 
Lying almost at the foot of Chaninagongo and to the 
south, glistened in the tropical sun the loveliest of 
African inland waters—Lake Kivu. Behind us, up- 
ward toward the summit of Karisimbi and adown 
the slopes in front, there stretched a primeval forest 
of marvellous beauty—in character unlike anything 
else I know—a veritable fairyland—and at our feet 
lay dead one of its great giants. 
I realized that the search for a background and a 
setting for the gorilla group was ended. We will re- 
produce this scene on canvas as a background for 
the gorillas when they are mounted in the Museum. 
The foreground will be a reproduction of the old dead 
tree with its wealth of vegetation in the midst of 
which the old gorilla died. Of course, it is regrettable 
that we had no painter with us at the time. To get 
one there means another long journey from New York 
to Central Africa, yet it will be worth it if the thou- 
sands who visit the Museum get even a faint degree of 
the satisfaction from the setting of the group that we 
got from this view in the gorilla country. 
I felt then, and even more so now, that that morn- 
ing represented the high spot in my African expe- 
riences. Inthe midst of a forest, a land of beauty, we 
overlooked a scene incomparable, a scene of a world 
in the making, while our great primitive cousin, 
whose sanctuary we had invaded, lay dead at our feet. 
That was the sad note. To me the source of greatest 
joy was the fact that here, at the culmination of a 
