HANNO'S VOYAGE. 



orifice called the " occipital foramen " is set so far back, that the whole weight of 

 the brain and skull is thrown forwards, and so overbalances the body. 



Another cause is seen in the structure of the hind limbs. These members are in- 

 tended for progression among the branches of trees, and are so formed that, when the 

 animal uses them for terrestrial locomotion, it is forced to tread, not upon their soles, 

 but upon their sides. The muscular calves, which brace the foot and limb, are want- 

 ing in the Quadrumanous animals ; and even when they are standing as uprightly as 

 possible, the knees are always partially bent. The monkeys, then, are just quadru- 

 peds, although their paws are more perfectly developed than those of the generality of 

 animals. 



\Ye will now proceed to our examples of the Quadrumanous animals. 



SIMIAD^E, OR APES. 



The Apes are at once distinguished from the other Quadrumana by the absence of 

 those cheek-pouches which are so usefully employed as temporary larders by those 

 monkeys which possess them ; by the total want of tails, and of those callosities on 

 the hinder quarters which are so conspicuously characteristic of the baboons. Besides 

 these external differences there are several distinctions to be found in the interior 

 anatomy both of the bones and the vital organs. 



The first in order, as well as the largest of the Apes, is the enormous ape from 

 Western Africa, the Gorilla, the skeleton of which has already been given. This 

 animal is comparatively new to modern zoologists, and very little is at present known 

 of its habits. The first modern writer who brought the Gorilla before the notice of the 

 public seems to be Mr. Bowdich, the well-known African traveller ; for it is evidently 

 of the Gorilla that he speaks under the name of Ingheena. The natives of the Gaboon 

 and its vicinity use the name Gina, when mentioning the Gorilla. The many tales, 

 too, that are told of the habits, the gigantic strength, and the general appearance of 

 the Ingheena, are precisely those which are attributed to the Gorilla. 



Of the Ingheena, Mrs. Lee (formerly Mrs. Bowdich ) speaks as follows : " It is in 

 equatorial Africa that the most powerful of all the Quadrumana live, far exceeding the 

 orang-outang, and even the pongo of Borneo. 



" Mr. Bowdich and myself were the first to revive and confirm a long-forgotten and 

 vague report of the existence of such a creature, and many thought that, as we ourselves 

 had not seen it, we had been deceived by the natives. They assured us that these 

 huge creatures walk constantly on their hind feet, and never yet were taken alive ; that 

 they watch the actions of men, and imitate them as nearly as possible. Like the ivory 

 hunters, they pick up the fallen tusks of elephants, but not knowing where to deposit 

 them, they carry their burdens about until they themselves drop, and even die from 

 fatigue ; that they built huts nearly in the shape of those of men, but live on the out- 

 side ; and that when one of their children dies, the mother carries it in her arms until 

 it falls to pieces ; that one blow of their paw will kill a man, and that nothing can ex- 

 ceed their ferocity." 



Its existence was evidently known to some adventurous voyagers more than two 

 thousand years ago, and a record has been preserved of these travels. 



Somewhere about the year 350 B. c., the Carthaginians, then a most powerful and 

 flourishing nation, organized a naval expedition for the purpose of examining the 

 coasts and of founding colonies. The command of the fleet, which consisted of sixty 

 large vessels containing nearly thirty thousand men and women, together with provis- 

 ions and other necessaries, was entrusted to Hanno, who wrote memoirs of the voy- 

 age in a small work that is well known by the title of the " Periplus," or the Circum- 

 navigation of Hanno. In the course of this voyage he founded seven colonies, and 

 after advancing as far as the modern Sierra Leone, was forced to return for want of 

 provisions. 



The whole treatise is one of great interest, especially in the present day, when 

 travels of discovery in Africa have been prosecuted with so much energy. The passage, 

 however, which bears on the present question is briefly as follows. After narrating 



