BABY GORILLAS. 83 



a tiny baby gorilla hanging at her breast and sucking. 

 The mother was stroking the little one, and looking 

 fondly down at it ; and the scene was so pretty and 

 touching, that I held my fire, and considered, like a 

 soft-hearted fellow, whether I had not bettor leave 

 them in peace. 



" Before I could make up my mind, however, my 

 hunter fired, and killed the mother, who fell without 

 a struggle. The mother fell, but the baby clung to 

 her, and with pitiful cries endeavoured to attract her 

 attention. I came up, and when it saw me it hid 

 its poor little head in its mother's breast; it could 

 neither walk nor bite, so we could easily manage it, 

 and I carried it while the men bore the mother on 

 a pole. When we got to the village, another scene 

 ensued. The men put the body down, and I set the 

 little fellow near. As soon as he saw his mother, 

 he crawled to her and threw himself on her breast. 

 He did not find his accustomed nourishment, and I 

 saw that he perceived something was the matter with 

 the old one. He crawled over her body, smelt at it, 

 and gave utterance from time to time to a plaintive 

 cry, ' hoo, hoo, hoo ! ' which touched my heart. 



" I could get no milk for the poor little fellow, who 

 could not eat, and consequently died on the third 

 day after he was caught. He seemed more docile 

 than the other I had, for he already recognized my 



D 



