IN THE LAND OF THE GORILLA. 447 



ordinary gun-barrel, and the arms will bend the weapon as though it were putty. 

 When enraged, the thin, black lips shrink so that all his teeth are visible, gleaming 

 unnaturally white in the vast mouth, which is as red as blood. 



The shoulders are broad, and the hideous head is placed upon them without the 

 intervention of a neck. The abdomen is very large and rounding at the sides. You 

 may gain some idea of the capacity of the immense hand when told that the middle 

 finger has been found in some gorillas to be more than six inches in circumference 

 at the first joint. 



Strange stories were told by the early navigators of a fearful object seen on the 

 west coast of Africa, whose description leaves little doubt that he was the animal 

 since known as the gorilla. In 1847, Rev. J. L. Wilson, senior missionary of the 

 American Board of Foreign Missions to West Africa, obtained from some of the 

 natives on Gaboon River a number of skulls of a monkey-like creature, noted for 

 its size and ferocity. These were turned over to Dr. Thomas S. Savage, a member 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History, and were minutely described by Dr. 

 Wyman, Professor of Anatomy in Harvard University. 



When the male is first seen he utters a frightful yell that resounds through the 

 forest something like "kh-ahf kh-ahf" His huge jaws are wide open, his under 

 lip hangs over his chin, and his hairy ridge and scalp are contracted upon the brow, 

 giving his front an appearance of indescribable ferocity. 



The gorillas generally live in bands, the females outnumbering the males. Their 

 dwellings hardly merit the name, consisting of a few sticks and leafy branches, sup- 

 ported by the limbs of trees. The natives say the gorilla is a fool, for, though he 

 lives where the annual rain-fall is great, he doesn't know enough to place a roof on 

 his house. 



There is a bird in Equatorial Africa which, if it chose, could give him many 

 points on how to construct a comfortable home ; for, after making a large nest with 

 a tight .oof, it daubs it with mud on the inside, and, unfolding its wings, whirls 

 round and round until every crevice is filled and the inside is as smoothly plastered 

 as your own house. 



