CHAPTER IV. 

 THE ANTHROPOID APES. 



THE AFRICAN DIVISION — THE GENUS TROGLODYTES — THE GORILLA — THE CHIMPANZEE — THE ASIATIC 



DIVISION — THE GENUS SI.MIA — ORANG-OUTAN — THE GENUS HVLOBATES OR GIBBON. 



H 



UXLEY remarks that whatever system of classification is 

 adopted, the Anthropoid apes are less widely separated from 

 man than from the lower races of apes. The body is strik- 

 ingly like the human form, the front limbs bein'g longer, the hinder ones 

 shorter than ours ; the position of the eyes and ears is the same as in 

 man ; the body is covered thinly with hair, except the face and the 

 inside of the feet, which parts are bare ; they have no tail. Among 

 the man-like apes, the first place must be assigned to the huge and 

 terrible inhabitant of Western Africa, the Gorilla. 



I.— GENUS TROGLODYTES. 



The Gorilla, Troglodytes Gorilla, (Plate I.) — More than two thousand 

 \ rt'O hundred years ago, a Carthaginian fleet set sail from the Mcditer- 

 r.inean to explore the coast of Africa. The commander of the fleet, 

 Hanno, left an account of his voyage, and we possess a Greek transla- 

 tion of his work. He describes how he passed the present district of 

 Sierra Leone, and then continues : " On the third day, when we had 

 sailed thence and passed the fire-stream, we came to the South horn. 

 In the bottom of the bay formed by this promontory was an island, 

 with a lake in which was an island where we found some wild men. 

 The mr.jority were females with hairy bodies, and our interpreter called 

 them Gorillas. We could not catch any males ; they escaped easily by 

 clambering up and down the precipices, and defended themselve? by 

 hurling fragments of rock. We caught three females, but could not 



