CHIMPANZEES, 27 



With regard to the extent of their range across the continent to the eastward, 

 chimpanzees are known to occur to the north-west of the great lakes in the Niam- 

 Niani district, in 28 east longitude, and they are likewise recorded from Monbottu. 

 Dr. Emin Pasha, writing to the secretary of the Zoological Society of London, 

 considers, however, that they range to about the parallel of 32 east longitude. 

 Dr. Emin's letter states, " It may be interesting for you to hear that an anthropoid 

 ape exists in Uganda and Unyoro (the districts lying between the Victoria and the 

 Albert Nyanza). I cannot say whether it is identical with the Monbottu 

 chimpanzee or not. While staying in these countries the negroes told me much 

 about this animal, and in a manuscript map which I forwarded to Dr. Petermann, 

 I fixed its northern limit at 2 north latitude. Now I hear that this ape is 

 frequent in the thick forests near Ugoma, and I hasten to beg my friend King 

 Ivabrega for some specimens." If this application to the king ever reached him it 

 does not appear to have been successful. Later on, however, Dr. Emin forwarded 

 to England the skull of a chimpanzee shot by himself near Lake Albert Nyanza, 

 which does not appear to differ from that of the West African form. 



Like all the other Man-like Apes the chimpanzees are forest- 

 dwelling animals, although on the coast of the Loango district they 

 are found in the mountains. Their food is usually the various wild fruits which 

 grow abundantly in these dense forests, but, as we have seen, at least the bald- 

 headed species will take kindly to an animal diet in captivity. 



The following account of the habits of the chimpanzee is taken from Dr. 

 Hartmann, who draws much of his information from the German traveller, 

 Schweinfurth, as detailed in his work entitled From the Heart of Africa. Dr. 

 Hartmann observes that the chimpanzee either lives in separate families or in 

 small groups of families. " In many districts as, for example, in the forest-regions 

 of Central Africa its habits are even more arboreal than are those of the gorilla. 

 Elsewhere as, for instance, on the south-west coast, it seems to live more upon the 

 ground. The Bam chimpanzee of Niam-Niam inhabits the galleries, as they were 

 called by Piaggia and Schweinfurth that is, the forest trees growing one above 

 another in stages, of which the growth is so dense that it is difficult to get at them. 

 The powerful stems, thickly overgrown with wild pepper, have branches from 

 which hang long streamers of bearded moss, and also a parasitic growth of that 

 remarkable fern to which Schweinfurth gave the name of elephant's ear. The 

 large tun-shaped structures of the tree termites (white ants) are found on the 

 loftier boughs. Other stems, rotten and decayed, serve as supports for the 

 colossal streamers of Mucuna urens (a climbing leguminous plant with yellow or 

 white flowers and large leathery seed-pods), and form bowers overhung with 

 impenetrable festoons, as large as houses, in w^hich perpetual darkness reigns. 



" When the chimpanzee goes on all-fours, he generally supports himself on the 

 backs of his closed fingers (compare Fig. 6 of the illustration on p. 15) rather than 

 on the palm of the hand, and he goes sometimes on the soles of his feet, sometimes 

 on his closed toes. His gait also is weak and vacillating, and he can stand upright 

 on his feet for a still shorter time than the gorilla. At the same time he seeks 

 support for his hands, or clasps them above his head, which is a little thrown back 

 in order to maintain his balance." 



