Apes, Monkeys, and Lemurs 



the canines are much smaller, and the ridges above the eyes are not noticeable, a feature 

 common also to the young. 



Timid, superstitious natives and credulous or untrustworthy travellers have left still wrapped 

 in mystery many of the habits of this mighty ape, whose fever-stricken, forest-clad haunts 

 render investigation always difficult, often impossible. Many tales of its ferocity and strength 

 are obviously untrue, but we think that too much has been disbelieved. That a huge arm 

 descends from a tree, draws up and chokes the wayfarer, must be false, for intelligent natives 

 have confessed to knowing no instance of the gorilla attacking man. That it vanquishes the 

 leopard is probable ; that it has driven the lion from its haunts requires proof. Nor can we 

 accept tales of the carrying-off of Negro women ; and the defeat of the elephants, too, must 

 be considered a fiction. 



But we must believe that this ape, if provoked or wounded, is a terrible foe, capable of 

 ripping open a man with one stroke of its paw, or of cracking the skull of a hunter as easily 

 as a squirrel cracks a nut. There is a tale of a tribe that kept an enormous gorilla as 

 executioner, which tore its victims to pieces, until an Englishman, doomed to meet it, 

 noticing a large swelling near its ribs, killed it with a heavy blow or two on the weak spot. 



Gorillas live mainly in the trees on whose fruit they subsist ; they construct a shelter in the 

 lower boughs for the family, and as a lying-in place for the female. The male is said to sleep 

 below, with his back against the tree a favourite attitude with both sexes to keep off leopards. 

 On the ground it moves on all-fours, with a curious swinging action, caused by putting its 

 hands with fingers extended on the ground, and bringing its body forward by a half-jump. 

 Having a heel, it can stand better than other apes ; but this attitude is not common, and 

 Du Chaillu appears to have been mistaken when he describes the gorilla as attacking upright. 



In captivity only immature 

 specimens have been seen Barnum's 

 great ape being one of the larger 

 forms of chimpanzee. Accounts vary 

 as to the temper of the gorilla, some 

 describing it as untamable, while 

 others say it is docile and playful 

 when young. There is an Ameri- 

 can tale that a gorilla over 6 feet 

 high was captured near Tanganyika, 

 but nothing more has reached us 

 about it. 



When enraged, a gorilla beats its 

 breast, as the writer was informed 

 by a keeper, who thus confirmed 

 Du Chaillu's account. Its usual voice 

 is a grunt, which, when the animal 

 is excited, becomes a roar. 



THE ORANG-UTAN. 



This great red ape was men- 

 tioned by Linnaeus in 1766, and at 

 the beginning of the last century a 

 specimen living in the Prince of 

 Orange's collection was described by 

 Vosmaer. 



There are three varieties of the 

 ORANG, called by the Dyaks MIAS- 



By permisiion of Merr Umlaujf J 



A MALE GOBILLA. 



[Hamburg. 



This photograph of the largest gorilla known was taken immediately after death 

 by Herr Paschen at Yaunde, and gives an excellent idea of the size of these animals 

 as compared with Negroes. The animal weighed 400 Ibs. 



