288 ATTACK OF THE GORILLA. 



huge beast, erect and defiant, approaches the hunter, who waits 

 in terrible suspense the moment to fire. The vast breast is a 

 mark which, if the hunter is cool, it is not difficult to hit ; and 

 when the time comes the gun is quickly raised, and if the shot is 

 fairly delivered, the Gorilla falls. It is a fortunate thing for the 

 hunter that the beast dies very readily, having nothing of that 

 extreme tenacity of life which characterises many wild animals. 



It is unnecessary here to follow M. du Chaillu into the further 

 details of his adventures with this enormous Ape, nor is it ne- 

 cessary to enter upon any discussion as to the proper place which 

 the Gorilla occupies in the series of Apes, with respect to the 

 nearness of its approach to the human race. The young reader 

 will probably be content to know that Professor Owen, the king 

 of animals, places the monster at the very top of the list, as the 

 one which makes, on the whole, the nearest approach to the 

 genus homo ; but that it is still separated from it by a broad im- 

 passable gulf of organic difference. In fine, the Gorilla is a huge 

 ferocious Ape, and nothing more, and is not for a moment to be 

 thought of as having any ancestral connection with the human 

 family 



