40 THE MONKEY TRIBE 



animal was so named by Hanno, a Carthaginian 

 explorer, who visited tropical West Africa about 350 B.C. 

 Upon his return home he brought with him three stuffed 

 specimens. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether the 

 explorer penetrated sufficiently far southwards to come in 

 contact with the Gorilla ; it is far more likely that his 

 captures were only large baboons. 



The animal was not really known to Europeans until 

 1847, when Professor Richard Owen procured a skull from 

 Dr. Savage, an American missionary on the Gabun river. 

 In 1852 large numbers of the apes migrated to the coast, 

 probably owing to some unusual, and never repeated, 

 failure in their food supply, and several were killed and 

 despatched to Europe and America. The next year, at 

 the Royal Institution, Professor Owen rather startled his 

 audience by the information he afforded concerning the 

 manners and personal peculiarities of the Gorilla, which 

 promptly caused the animal to be placed in a new genus, 

 based chiefly upon the marked difference in the sizes of the 

 male and female, the protruding canine teeth, and the 

 prominent cranial ridges above the eyes. 



In 1861 Du Chaillu, the French traveller, described the 

 Gorilla in fuller detail ; and though at the time his account 

 was considered to be largely romance, later knowledge has 

 in the main only proved his correctness. The male not 

 infrequently exceeds six feet in height, and averages five 

 and a half feet, which is beyond the mean height of man ; 

 the female is smaller. 



A full grown Gorilla is a formidable creature. A glance 

 at the skeleton will show the capabilities of special muscular 

 power in the limbs and jaws. The shoulders are extra- 

 ordinarily massive, to which is joined the bullet head by 

 scarcely a vestige of neck. The great brawny arms extend 

 nearly to the knee when the animal is upright ; the hands 

 are very broad ; the fingers are short and thick, and are 

 united by webs almost to the first joint. The middle finger 

 is often quite six inches in circumference. The foot v/ith 

 its great toe, set out at an angle of about 60 degrees, is not 

 unlike a giant hand of immense power and grasp. It is 

 turned in but little, and is better fitted for walking on the 



