282 A LURKING FOE. 



ground, lie drops his stick, betakes himself to all fours, applying 

 the back part of the bent knuckles of his fore-hands to the 

 ground, and makes his way rapidly, with an oblique swinging 

 kind of gallop, to the nearest tree. There he awaits his pursuer, 

 especially if his family be near and requiring his defence. 



The enmity of the Gorilla to the whole negro race is of the 

 most determined character ; and when the young men of the 

 Gaboon make their armed excursions into the forest in quest of 

 ivory, there is no enemy which they dread so much. If they 

 come upon one of them unawares, he does not, like the lion, 

 sulkily retreat, but advances rapidly to the attack, swinging 

 down to the lower branches, and clutching at the nearest foe. 

 The aspect of the monster at such times is described as most 

 hideous ; his green eyes flashing with rage, while the skin over 

 the prominent roof of the orbits, is drawn rapidly backwards and 

 forwards, and the hair erected, causing a horrible and fiendish scowl. 



If fired at, and not mortally wounded, the Gorilla is said to 

 close at once upon its assailant, and to inflict the most dangerous 

 if not deadly wounds, with his sharp and powerful tusks. The 

 commander of a Bristol trader informed Professor Owen that he 

 had seen a negro at the Gaboon w r ho was frightfully mutilated 

 by the bite of the Gorilla ; and he stated that another negro 

 showed him a gun-barrel which was bent and partly flattened 

 by the bite of a wounded Gorilla, in its death struggle. But the 

 most truly terrible part of the story remains to be told. It is 

 said that the negroes, when stealing along through the gloomy 

 shades of the forest, are sometimes first made aware of the 

 presence of one of these frightful creatures by the sudden disap- 

 pearance of one of their companions, who is caught up into the 

 tree, uttering perhaps a short choking cry, and in a few 

 minutes after, dropped to the ground a strangled corpse. The 

 Gorilla, seated on the lower branches of a tree, has been watching 

 his opportunity has reached down his huge hind-hand, seized 

 the passing negro by the neck has drawn him up in his choking 

 grasp, and now that his struggles have ceased, drops him to the 

 ground. A bold negro, the leader of an Elephant hunting 

 expedition, on being offered a hundred dollars if he would bring 

 back a Gorilla alive, replied, " If you gave me the weight of 

 yonder hill in gold coins I would not do it." 



In brief, such is the account which Professor Owen had given 



