8 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



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 the gorillas' 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 an angry dog, then glides into a deep bass roll, which 

 literally and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder 

 along the sky. So deep is it that it seems to proceed 

 less from the mouth and throat than from the deep chest 

 and vast paunch. 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 his thunderous roar. He advanced a few 

 steps then stopped to utter that hideous roar again 

 advanced again, and finally stopped when at a distance of 

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

 of his roars, beating his breast with rage, we fired, and 

 killed him. With a groan which had something terribly 

 human in it, and yet was full of brutishness, he fell forward 

 en his face. The body shook convulsively 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." A 

 smaller gorilla, shot by M. du Chaillu on another occasion, 

 measured five feet six inches in height, fifty inches round 

 the chest, and his arms had a spread of seven feet two inches. 



