284 THE UNKNOWN. 



of the terrestrial creation have their habitation in that 

 continent. The elephant, the hippopotamus, several dif- 

 ferent sorts of rhinoceros, the zebra, the quagga, the 

 giraffe ; multitudes of antelopes, some of them of colossal 

 dimensions ; the buffalo ;. the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the 

 mandril, and other baboons and monkeys ; the lion, the 

 panther, the leopard ; — these are only the more prominent 

 of the quadrupeds which roam the plains and woods of 

 Africa. Thinly peopled and little cultivated; a region 

 enclosed between sixty degrees of latitude, bisected by the 

 equator, and (in it& widest part) between as many of lon- 

 gitude ; of which, perhaps, more than three-fourths are 

 only now just beginning to be penetrated by the straggling 

 foot of the European explorer and missionary ; — what may 

 we not expect of the vast, the uncouth, the terrible, among 

 the creatures which lurk as yet unsuspected in the teem- 

 ing wilds of Central Africa ? Perhaps less, however, after 

 all, than at first view appears probable. It is remarkable 

 that the explorations of the adventurous Livingstone from 

 the south, and of Earth and others from the north — ex- 

 plorations which have immensely diminished the extent 

 of absolutely unknown land — have contributed almost 

 nothing to what we previously knew of the natural his- 

 tory of the continent. The most important recent addi- 

 tion to zoology is, undoubtedly,^ the gorilla ; but this 

 discovery was not the result of geographic extension, the 

 animal inhabiting the forests of a line of coast frequented 

 for centuries by European traders. The great pioneers 

 alluded to were not strictly naturalists, it is true; and 



