2 THE GORILLA. 



man in outward appearance chiefly in having little or 

 no calves to his legs. Nevertheless, he walks upright, 

 holding his hands clasped behind his neck He sleeps 

 in trees, and constructs for himself a shelter against 

 the sun and rain ; he lives on fruits ; he cannot talk, 

 although he has a better understanding than other 

 animals. When travellers abandon, in the morning, 

 the fire which they have kept during the night, the 

 pongoes come and sit around it until it becomes extinct, 

 but they have not sufficient intelligence to gather wood 

 to keep it alive. They go in companies , they kill the 

 negroes they encounter ; they will even attack an ele- 

 phant, and put him to flight by blows with their fists 

 or with sticks. " 



Bosnian, another traveller in Guinea, has spoken 

 of the same ape. " They grow extremely large," he 

 wrote ; "I have seen one with my own eyes which was 

 five feet high ; they have a very ugly figure, are very 

 wicked, very bold, and sufficiently daring to attack 

 men. Some negroes assure us that these apes 

 can talk, and that if they don't do so, it is 

 because they don't wish to give themselves the 

 trouble. It would perhaps be better to say that they 

 are capable of understanding all one would wish to 

 teach them." 



M. de la Brosse, in a journey on the coast of 

 Angola, published in 1738, says that they attain the 



