4 THE GORILLA.. 



imitation of that of the natives, and that he sleeps 

 outside on the roof of this dwelling. 



It is needless to say that Africa does not contain an 

 ape which bears resemblance to man in all his pro- 

 portions, and which differs from him exteriorly only 

 in the small protuberance of his calves, and who does 

 not talk simply because he does not wish to give 

 himself the trouble. "I regret," says an author, from 

 whom presently we shall frequently borrow, " I regret 

 to be obliged to destroy agreeable illusions ; but the 

 gorilla does not lie in ambush behind trees to seize 

 with his claws the defenceless traveller. He does not 

 strangle him between his feet as in a vice ; he does not 

 carry away women from their villages ; he does not build 

 for himself a hut of branches in the forests ; he does 

 not march in troops, and in all that has been said of his 

 attacks en masse, there is not the shadow of truth." 



The reports of travellers were then imbued with 

 exaggerations and errors ; but beyond what was erro- 

 neous and improbable, these accounts agree in attesting 

 the existence of an ape distinct from the chimpanzee, 

 larger, stronger, and more dangerous than this latter, 

 and of that there was no reason to doubt. 



Attention was then aroused to the subject. It was 

 in 1846 that all doubts ceased. 



It happened that at that period an American mis- 

 sionary, the Rev. Dr. J. Leighton Wilson, discovered at 



