ON THE HUNTING GROUND. 15 



-Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and 

 presently before us stood an immense male gorilla. He 

 had gone through the jungle on all-fours, but when he 

 saw our party he erected himself and looked us boldly 

 in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and 

 was a sight I think I shall never forget. Nearly six 

 feet high (he proved four inches shorter), with immense 

 body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with 

 fiercely glaring large deep grey eyes, and a hellish 

 expression of face, which seemed to me like some 

 nightmare vision. Thus stood before us the king of 

 the African forests. 



"He was not afraid of us; he stood there and beat 

 his breast with his huge fists till it resounded like an 

 immense drum (its usual mode of offering defiance), 

 meantime giving vent to roar after roar. 



" The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and 

 awful noise heard in these African woods. It begins 

 with a sharp bark, like an angry dog, then glides into a 

 deep bass roll, which literally and closely resembles the 

 roll of distant thunder along the sky, for which I have 

 sometimes been tempted to take it when I did not see 

 the animal. So deep is it, that it seems to proceed 

 less from the mouth and throat than from the deep 

 chest and vast paunch. 



"His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood 

 motionless on the defensive, and the crest of short hair 



