THE CHIMPANZEE. 3 



and in having the last joint of the great toe perfect. The arms, 

 though long, reach only a little way below the knee, and both 

 the hands and feet are broad and short. The thumb of the 

 hand has not the same relative length, otherwise the shape and 

 appearance of the whole hand greatly resemble that of man ; 

 but the thumb of the foot is of considerable length. The hair 

 is long, thin, and coarse ; on the fore-arms it is pointed towards 

 the elbow ; in young ones, it is black ; in adults, it is orange - 

 red. It expresses its anger by loud cries, or a succession of 

 short quick sounds, resembling a bark. The temper, disposition, 

 and intellect of the adult chimpanzee remain yet to be ascer- 

 tained ; for, as far as is known, no adult apecimen of this species, 

 or even of the orang-outan, has ever been kept and observed in 

 captivity. The few specimens which have been brought to 

 Europe have been } r oung ones, as was evident from their teeth 

 and small stature, the largest not having exceeded three feet six 

 inches. 



The shores of the Bullom country, on the north of the River 

 Sierra Leone, are infested by chimpanzees, in numbers quite 

 equal to the commonest species of monkey ; and the natives say 

 these animals always travel in large troops, armed with sticks, 

 which they can wield with great dexterity. They are very 

 watchful, and give signals of the approach of strangers by a 

 noise similar to that of human beings in great distress. M, De 

 Grandpre' says, chimpanzees often behave very roughly to the 

 negroes ; and Hanno, a Carthaginian Admiral, who lived three 

 hundred and thirty-six years before the Christian era, says of 

 some chimpanzees which were pursued, that "all the males 

 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."* 



In 1836, a young male chimpanzee was added to the collection 

 in the Zoological Society's Gardens. He was obtained by shooting 

 his mother, who was nursing him in her arms, about one hundred 

 and twenty miles from Grand Bassan, on the south-west coast of 



* Hannonis Periplus, translated by V. Berkel. 



