36 THE MAN-LIKE APES I 



America and of Asia ; to form magnificent collec- 

 tions as he wanders ; and withal to think out 

 sagaciously the conclusions suggested by his col- 

 lections : but, to the ordinary explorer or collector, 

 the dense forests of equatorial Asia and Africa,' 

 which constitute the favourite habitation of the 

 Orang, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla, present 

 difficulties of no ordinary magnitude ; and the 

 man who risks his life by even a short visit to the 

 malarious shores of those regions may well be 

 excused if he shrinks from facing the dangers of 

 the interior ; if he contents himself with stimu- 

 lating the industry of the better seasoned natives, 

 and collecting and collating the more or less 

 mythical reports and traditions with which they 

 are too ready to supply him. 



In such a manner most of the earlier accounts 

 of the habits of the man-like Apes originated ; 

 and even now a good deal of what passes current 

 must be admitted to have no very safe foundation. 

 The best information we possess is that, based 

 almost wholly on direct European testimony, re- 

 specting the Gibbons ; the next best evidence 

 relates to the Orangs ; while our knowledge of 

 the habits of the Chimpanzee and the Gorilla 

 stands much in need of support and enlargement 

 by additional testimony from instructed Europr3an 

 eye-witnesses. 



It will therefore be convenient in endeavouring 

 to form a notion of what we are justified in 



