3.^^ IN THE LAND OF GORILLAS AND PYGMIES 



party, he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face. He stood 

 about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I think I shall never 

 forget. Nearly six feet high (he proved four inches shorter), with 

 immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely- 

 glaring large deep gray eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which 

 seemed to me like some nightmare vision: thus stood before us this 

 king of the African forest. He was not afraid of us. He stood there, 

 and beat his breast with his huge fists till it resounded like an immense 

 bass-drum, which is their mode of offering defiance; meantime giving 

 vent to roar after roar. The roar of the gorilla is the most singular 

 and awful noise heard in these African woods. It begins with a sharp 

 bark, like that of an angry dog, then glides into a deep bass roll, which 

 literally and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder along the 

 sky, for which I have sometimes been tempted to take it where I did 

 not see the animal. So deep is it that it seems to proceed less from the 

 mouth and throat than from the deep chest and vast paunch." In 

 another place Du Chaillu says that he believes he has heard this roar 

 at a distance of three miles. "His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we 

 stood motionless on the defensive, and the crest of short hair which 

 stands on his forehead began to twitch rapidly up and down, while his 

 powerful fangs were shown as he again sent forth a thunderous roar. 

 And now truly he reminded me of nothing but some hellish dream 

 creature — a being of that hideous order, half-man half beast, which 

 we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the infernal 

 regions. He advanced a few steps — then stopped to utter that hide- 

 ous roar again — advanced again, and finally stopped when at a dis- 

 tance of about six yards from us. And here, just as he began another 

 of his roars, beating his breast in rage, we fired, and killed him. With 

 a groan which had something terribly human in it, and yet was fullj 

 of brutishness, he fell forward on his face. The body shook convul- 

 sively for a few minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way, 

 and then all was quiet — death had' done its work, and I had leisure to 

 examine the huge body. It proved to be five feet eight inches high, 

 and the muscular development of the arms and breast showed what 

 immense strength it had possessed." 



The people of this country, the Fans, were fortunately very 



