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CHAPTER XIII. 



THE GORILLA. 



" On the third day, having sailed from thence, passing the streams of fire, 

 we came to a bay called the Horn of the South. In the recess was an is- 

 land like the first, having a lake, and in this there was another island full 

 of wild men. But much the greater part of them were women, with 

 hairy bodies, whom the interpreters called gorillas. . . . But pursuing 

 them, we were not able to take the men : they all escaped from us by 

 their great agility, being cremnobates (that is to say, climbing precipitous 

 rocks and trees), and defending themselves by throwing stones at us. We 

 took three women, who bit and tore those who caught them, and were 

 unwilling to follow. We were obliged, therefore, to kill them, and took 

 their skins off, which skins were brought to Carthage, for we did not 

 navigate farther, provisions becoming scarce." 



THE Gorilla is the lion of the day. It may be that long 

 before these pages find their way into the hands of the reader, 

 the interest in the monster will in a great degree have abated, 

 and he may have taken his place amongst the Monkey tribe as a 

 huge ferocious Ape and nothing more. But at the time of this 

 present writing, he is pre-eminently the lion of the day, and has 

 more than a lion's share of public attention a subject of sharp 

 contention amongst learned zoologists, and of wonderment to 

 the public at large. He re-appears week by week in the 

 pages of " Punch ;" is the theme of nobody knows how many 

 populai songs; is lectured on by Mr. Spurgeon in his huge 

 Tabernacle ; and draws crowds of eager sight-seers to inspect 

 his stuffed skin in the British Museum. 



Never before, perhaps, has the mere description of the habits 

 of an animal created so marked a sensation. The Hippopotamus 

 and Ant-eater fevers which prevailed some years ago were 

 produced by the actual presence amongst us of the living 

 animals themselves : but, in this instance, with the exception of 

 a few skulls and stuffed skins, with which zoologists have boon 

 familiar for some years past, there is nothing to account for the 



