248 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
in the animal kingdom is still to be had. But unless 
some measures are quickly taken to get this informa- 
tion, the opportunity will be lost. The gorilla is on his 
way to extinction. He is not particularly numerous. 
He is neither wary nor dangerous. He is an easy 
and highly prized prey to the “‘sporting”’ instinct. 
As I travelled down from Mikeno toward the White 
Friars’ Mission the fascinating possibilities of the 
study of the gorilla and its immense scientific im- 
portance filled my mind along with the fear that his 
extinction would come before adequate study was 
made. ‘These considerations materially led my mind 
to the idea of a gorilla sanctuary; and I realized 
that a better place than the one I had just left 
could hardly be hoped for. The three mountains, 
Mikeno, Karisimbi, and Visoke stand up in a tri- 
angle by themselves. Their peaks are about four 
miles apart. On the slopes of these mountains, in 
the bamboos and in the dense forest, there are several 
bands of gorillas. I judge that there are between 
fifty and one hundred animals altogether. In all 
probability the animals in this region stay on these 
three mountains. Such is the belief of the natives, 
and it is a reasonable belief because if they left 
these peaks they would have to travel very consider- 
able distances to find similar security and food sup- 
plies elsewhere. This being true the three peaks 
can become a gorilla sanctuary by the simple expedi- 
ent of preventing hunters from invading them. 
It has been proved over and over again that animals 
very quickly learn to remain in places where they are 
