Gorilla Hunting 



to pluck and chew the tender leaves. Thus engaged was the 

 first gorilla I encountered. My Mhutu guide and myself 

 had been going carefully along through the dew-drenched 

 forest, when we were attracted by what sounded like a cough 

 and a breaking branch a considerable distance in advance 

 of our position. This the native assured me came from the 

 animals we sought, but quite how he could distinguish the 

 sounds from those made by a buffalo I am at a loss to under- 

 stand ; however he was right, for after gingerly picking our 

 way ahead for a short distance, we disturbed one of these 

 hairy giants taking an early morning sun-bath on his platform. 

 He was however too quick for us, for either sensing danger or 

 having seen us, he made one great leap off his perch, accom- 

 panied by a screaming roar, and was immediately lost to 

 view behind the thick screen of bamboos. The set of the wind 

 being in our favour we stood stock still where we were, it 

 being evident that the big ape could not have smelt us and 

 therefore had simply leaped to the ground, and was in all 

 likelihood standing and listening for intruders just where 

 he landed after his jump. Owing to the dense nature of the 

 bamboo forest in which we were, the incident just described 

 occurred at close quarters and I was now standing, as I 

 guessed, within twenty paces of my quarry — there being only 

 a tiny glade separating me from the bank of bamboo into 

 which he had disappeared. These surmises proved correct 

 for suddenly there broke forth from the opposite thicket the 

 weirdest " devil's tattoo " that can be imagined ; it started 

 with an indrawn whine, which quickly increased in volume 

 until it broke out into a hoarse grunt, accompanied by a heavy 

 resonant clopp — clopp — clopp. I had of course heard of 

 both the gorilla and orang-utan beating their chests to frighten 



83 



