STORIES OF TRAVELLERS. 5 



the Gaboon the skull of a new and extraordinary- kind 

 of ape. A narrow cranial cavity, almost wholly behind 

 the orbits of the eyes, and where the cerebral convolu- 

 tions had left but feeble impression ; jaw-bones of pro- 

 digious power, projecting in front, and armed with 

 formidable and deeply rooted tusks ; at the extremities 

 of the eyebrows, on the line of the parietal bon^s, and 

 at the junction of these with the occipital, were 

 enormous bony ridges ; finally, very large and arched 

 cheek-bones : in a word, all the characters of bestiality 

 carried to excess and united to those of strength without 

 equal among apes : such was this skull, which could 

 only have belonged to the Ingena of Bowditch, to the 

 Pongo of Battel. A learned American naturalist, Pro- 

 fessor Jeffries Wyrnan, gave a description of it in 1847 

 in the " Journal of Natural History of Boston." The 

 discovery of Mr. "Wilson did not long remain isolated, 

 and the anatomy of the new quadrumane, to which 

 Wilson had given the name of Gorilla, became the 

 object of the labours of Richard Owen in England, of 

 Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire and of Duvernoy in 

 France. The interest still increased when the first 

 white man who had seen a living gorilla face to 

 face had marie known ]\$ marvellous stories of the 

 chase. 



This white man is an American of French origin, 

 M. Paul du Chailhu 



