152 FKOM OLENDA TO MAYOLO. Chap. VIIL 



no traces of game of any kind, and was about to 

 retrace my steps, when I heard the nnmistakeable 

 roar of the gorilla. For the moment I forgot my 

 fatigue, and the old spirit was once more aroused 

 within me. I plunged forward into the thick of the 

 forest, breaking, as I went along, small boughs to 

 enable me to find my way back, and tearing my 

 clothes with the thorny underwood. The roar be- 

 came nearer, and seemed to shake the ground under 

 me. I heard the rustling of the branches, and 

 fancied there must be more than one. The excite- 

 ment of the moment was great, and was increased by 

 the prospect of obtaining food for all our party. 

 Suddenly the roaring ceased. I stopped, thinking 

 that it was a male which was perhaps preparing to 

 advance on me. But I listened in vain ; the beast 

 had fled. When I reached the spot, I saw nothing 

 but broken branches of trees. I measured some of 

 these with my thumb, and found boughs of five 

 inches diameter broken in two by the powerful grip 

 of this monster of the forest. Although disappointed 

 in my chase, I was glad to find a corroboration of the 

 explanation I had given, in my former volume, of 

 the wearing down of the animal's front teeth, for 

 some of tlie branches bore plainly the tooth marks. 



I returned weary and hungry to the camj^, and 

 tried to sleep under my shed. But I could not sleep, 

 and, in my prostrate condition, visions passed through 

 my mind of the many good dinners I had eaten at 

 the hospitable boards of my friends in Europe and 

 America. Strange to say, dinners which I had en- 

 tirely forgotten now recurred to my memory with 



