THE GORILLA. 15 



with these creatures on an island off the west coast of Africa, he proceeds to say : 

 " There were many more females than males, all equally covered with hair on all parts 

 of the body. The interpreters called them GORILLAS. On pursuing them we could 

 not succeed in taking a single male ; they all escaped with astonishing swiftness, and 

 threw stones at us ; but we took three females, who defended themselves with so 

 much violence that we were obliged to kill them, but we brought their skins stuffed 

 with straw to Carthage." It is evident that Hanno (or Annon, as his name is some- 

 times given) considered these Gorillas to be the veritable savage human inhabitants 



GORILLA. Troglodytes Gorilla. 



of the island ; perhaps rather more savage and powerful than ordinary, and rather less 

 given to clothing ; which latter deficiency, however, was supplied by the natural cover- 

 ing of hair. 



Imperfect as is his description, yet it is of much interest, as it proves the existence of 

 extraordinarily huge apes hitherto unknown even to the Carthaginians, the stuffed skins 

 being visible tests. 



For two thousand years nothing was heard of the Gorilla except certain floating 

 rumors of satyr-haunted woods, and of wild men who used to make their appearance at 



