THE EOMANCE OF NATUKAL HISTORY. 



lately re-discovered, to which, in allusion to the 

 old story, the name of Gorilla has been given. 

 The region in question is a richly wooded coun- 

 try, extending about a thousand miles along the 

 coast from the Gulf of Guinea southward; and as 

 the gorilla is not found beyond thess limits, so we 

 may pretty conclusively infer that the extreme 

 point of Hanno was somewhere in this region. 



This great ape makes the nearest approach of 

 any brute-animal to the human form; it is fulty 

 equal to man in stature, but immensely more 

 broad and muscular; while its strength is colossal. 

 Though exclusively a fruit-eater, it is described as 

 always manifesting an enraged enmity towards 

 man; and no negro, even if furnished with fire- 

 arms, will willingly enter into conflict with an 

 adult male gorilla. He is said to be more than a 

 match for the lion. 



The rivalry between the mighty ape and the 

 elephant is curious, and leads to somewhat comic 

 results. The old male is always armed with a 

 stout stick when on the scout, and knows how to 

 use it. The elephant has no intentional evil 

 thoughts towards the gorilla, but unfortunately 

 they love the same sorts of fruit. When the ape 

 sees the elephant busy with his trunk among the 

 twigs, he instantly regards it as an infraction of 

 the laws of property ; and, dropping quietly down 

 to the bough, he suddenly brings his club smartly 

 down on the sensitive finger of the elephant's 

 proboscis, and drives off the alarmed animal 

 trumpeting shrilly with rage and pain. 



There must be something so wild and unearthly 

 in the appearance of one of these apes, so demon- 

 like in hideousness, in the solemn recesses of the 

 dark primeval forest, that I might have told its 

 story in the preceding chapter. The terrors with 

 244 



