461' Dr. J. E. Gray on the Zoology of 



I shall pass over the disgusting accounts of the cannibal habits of 

 the natives (see pp. 84, 88, 94), which disfigure the narrative, merely 

 with the declaration that I cannot believe them without better evi- 

 dence. The occurrence of cannibalism to the extent which he states 

 to exist among certain tribes, as the * Fans,' is simply impossible ; 

 the tribe would soon cease to exist : it is quite as impossible as the 

 celebrated story of the two Kilkenny cats. Further, it is inconsistent 

 with the accounts of all my friends who have lived in different parts 

 of the west coast of Africa, and even at Gaboon itself : they say 

 they often hear of its existence, but have never been able to trace a 

 case home ; while, on the contrary, they say the negro has a great 

 fear of a dead human body. I do not deny that sometimes the chiefs, 

 at a religious ceremony, or out of bravado, do eat some parts of their 

 enemies that have been killed in battle ; but I cannot believe, without 

 much better evidence, that man does what no other animal is here 

 accused of doing — that is, eat as common food its own kind : it may 

 be done as an exception, while in a morbid state, as when a sow eats 

 its young, but not as a rule. 



In the preface to the 'Adventures' (p. viii), the author observes, 

 " A brief summary of the results of my four years' travels will per- 

 haps interest the reader. I travelled, always on foot, and unaccom- 

 panied by other white men, about 8000 miles. I shot, stuffed, and 

 brought home over 2000 birds, of which more than 60 are new to 

 science. I killed upwards of 1000 quadrupeds, of which 200 were 

 stuffed and brought home, with more than 80 skeletons. Not less 

 than 20 of the quadrupeds are species hitherto unknown to science. 



" The singular region of Equatorial Africa, the interior of which 

 it was my fortune to be the first to explore, and of whose people 

 and strange animal and vegetable productions I give some account 

 in the following pages, is remarkable chiefly for its fauna, which is 

 in many respects not only extraordinary, but peculiar. In this com- 

 paratively narrow belt, extending on either side of the equator, is 

 found that monstrous and ferocious Ape, the Gorilla. Here, too, and 

 here only, is the home of the very remarkable nest-building Ape, the 

 Troglodytes calvus, the * Nshiego mbouve ' of the natives ; of the 

 hitherto unknown Kooloo kamba, another Ape no less remarkable 

 than the T. calvus; and of the Chimpanzee. North, south, and east 

 of this region the Lion lords it in the forest and the desert ; only in 

 this tract he is not found." 



As soon as I was informed that the collection was open to the 

 Fellows of the Geographical Society and their friends, I went to 

 look at it ; and I must own that I was much disappointed at not 

 finding a single animal that I had not before seen from the different 

 trading stations on the west coast of Africa, and that all the species 

 that were marked with new names were merely old friends under new 

 designations ; and I was much surprised to observe that they were 

 generally preserved in such a state as to show that they must have 

 been prepared in or near the habitation of civilized man, and not in 

 the "jungle," whence they would have to be carried. 



The specimens were generally in a bad condition, and a number 



