ROOSEVELT AFRICAN HALL 265 
as natural as a gorilla group in the same position. 
The setting of the group of five gorillas is to be 
an exact reproduction of the spot where the big 
male of Karisimbi died. In mounting them I have 
my personal observation, my data and material to 
work from. My own measurements are significant 
and helpful. I have photographs of the scenery, 
the setting, and the gorillas themselves. I have 
photographs of their faces—not distorted to make 
them hideous but as they naturally were—and death 
masks which make a record that enables me to make 
the face of each gorilla mounted a portrait of an indi- 
vidual. All this makes these unlike any other mounted 
gorillas in the world. After all the work that I had 
put on them I was glad to get the corroboration 
of one who knows gorillas as well as T. Alexander 
Barnes. He had followed gorillas in the Kivu coun- 
try where I got my specimens. As he looked at 
the first of the group standing in my studio, he ex- 
claimed, “Well, thank God! At last one has been 
mounted that looks like a gorilla.” 
Still with all our work we are only well started 
on the gorilla group. The background—and it is 
a beautiful scene—must be painted by as great an 
artist as we can get and he must go to Karisimbi 
to make his studies. And the preparators who make 
the accessories—the artificial leaves, trees, and 
grasses—they, too, must go to examine the spot and 
collect their data, for every leaf and every tree and 
every blade of grass must be a true and faithful copy 
of nature. Otherwise, the exhibit is a lie and it would 
