12 THE GORILLA. 



feet, and there must have been four or five in the 

 company. From time to time they had sat down, to 

 masticate the canes. 



"It was the first time I had ever seen these foot- 

 prints/' writes M. du Chaillu, "and my sensations 

 were indescribable. Here was I, now, it seemed, on 

 the point of meeting face to face that monster of whose 

 ferocity, strength, and cunning the natives had told me 

 so much ; an animal scarce known to the civilized world, 

 and which no white man before had hunted. My heart 

 beat till I feared its loud pulsations would alarm the 

 gorilla, and my feelings were really excited to a painful 

 degree. 



" The women were terrified, poor things, and we left 

 them a good escort of two or three men to take care of 

 them and reassure them. Then the rest of us looked 

 once more carefully at our guns, and the hunt began. 



"We descended a hill, crossed a stream on a fallen 

 log, and presently approached some huge boulders 

 of granite. Alongside of this granite block lay an 

 immense dead tree, and about this we saw many evi- 

 dences of the very recent presence of the gorillas. 



"Doubtless they were hiding behind these granite 

 blocks, which it was necessary to surround. The 

 hunters divided into two parties, one taking the right, 

 the other the left, with guns cocked and in hand. The 

 excitement of the blacks was even greater than that of 



