64 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
of the admiral; it showed me what an impression my 
story had created on their minds. 
Then said I: “ Boys, there are two or three points in 
the story I have told you which inclines me to believe 
that the country Hanno speaks of is not this one, and 
still there are several facts which make me think that 
the country where we are now is the same. 
“The very land on which we stand is sandy ; not far 
off is the River Fernand Vaz, and on one side another 
river, the Commi River, is found. It may be that the 
land on which we stand was then an island, and that 
Cape Lopez is the Horn of the South of which that 
great man Hanno speaks. Time changes countries; in 
one part the sea will take away, in another part the sea 
will give. Such is the country in which we are.” 
They shouted with one accord that it could not be; 
how could land rise? how could the land go down? As 
to the sea eating away the land, they believed it, for 
they had seen it; and as to the land gaining in some 
places, they believed that also, for they had seen it. 
They all wondered how near the word Gorilla was to 
that of Ngina and Nguyla, the latter name being given 
by the Bakalai to the beast. 
After my story, we all went to bed. I wrapped my- 
self carefully in my blanket and soon fell asleep, think- 
ing unconsciously of the gorillas, and hoping soon to 
meet some. 
It was the dry season; we were in the month of 
August, and I was near Cape St. Catherine. The wind 
was blowing hard, the atmosphere was chilly, the sky 
was clouded as though it was going.to rain, but no rain 
was coming, for no rain falls at this time of the year. 
