ON THE HUNTING GEOUND. 17 



Our traveller immediately slipped a ball into his 

 gun, already loaded with bird- shot, and walked in the 

 direction of the cry. 



From time to time the rumbling sound, which the 

 male makes in striking his breast with his large fists, 

 approached him. 



He soon heard the cracking of branches, and he saw 

 through the thicket a young tree rudely shaken, and in 

 a few seconds fall to the ground. But perhaps the 

 animal was conscious of danger, for a profound silence 

 succeeded the roaring, and when M. du Chaillu had 

 opened a passage into the thicket, the gorilla had 

 disappeared. 



"I am certain," writes he, "that I heard his roar 

 at a distance of three miles, and the drumming of his 

 arms against his breast at a mile at least. No words 

 can describe the kind of thunder which it produces. 



" On examining the wood where these gorillas were 

 moving and feeding, I learnt for the first time why the 

 canine teeth of this animal, especially of the male, are 

 generally so worn, and I found at the same time aston- 

 ishing proofs of his strength. Many trees, measuring 

 from four to six inches in diameter, had been broken, 

 and bore the marks of the biting of the gorillas, whose 

 teeth had penetrated to the heart of the tree, in order 

 to extract the pith. It was a hard wood, and I saw 

 well, by the manner in which it had been gnawed, that 



o 



