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being offered a hundred dollars if he would bring back a live 

 gorilla, replied, ' If you gave me the weight of yonder hill in gold 

 coins, I could not do it !' 



All the terms of the aborigines in respect to the gorilla imply 

 their opinion of his close kinship to themselves. But they have a 

 low opinion of his intelligence. They say that during the rainy 

 season he builds a house without a roof. The natives on their 

 hunting excursions light fires for their comfort and protection by 

 night; when they have gone away, they affirm that the gorilla will 

 come down and warm himself at the smouldering embers, but has 

 not wit enough to throw on more wood, out of the surrounding 

 abundance, to keep the fire burning, l the stupid old man ! ' 



Every account of the habits of a wild animal obtained at 

 second hand from the reports of aborigines has its proportion of 

 1 apocrypha.' I have restricted myself to the statements that 

 have most probability and are in accordance with the ascertained 

 structures and powers of the animal, and would only add the 

 averment and belief of the Gaboon negroes that when a gorilla 

 dies, his fellows cover the corpse with a heap of leaves and loose 

 earth collected and scraped up for the purpose. 



A most singular phenomenon in natural history, if one reflects 

 on the relations of things, is this gorilla ! Limited as it is in its 

 numbers and geographical range, one discerns that the very peculiar 

 conditions of its existence abundance of wild fruit needs must 

 be restricted in space ; but, concurring in a certain part of Africa, 

 there lives the creature to enjoy them. 



The like conditions exist in Borneo and Sumatra, and there 

 also a correlative human-like ape, of similar stature, tooth-armour, 

 and force, exists at their expense. Neither orangs nor gorillas, 

 however, minister to man's use directly or indirectly. Were they 

 to become extinct, no sign of the change or break in the links of 

 life would remain. What may be their real significance? 



In regard to the ancient notices which may relate to the great 

 anthropoid ape of Africa, I may quote the following passage from 

 the 'Periplus,' or Voyage of Hanno, which has been supposed to 

 refer to the species in question : ' On the third day, having sailed 

 from thence, passing the streams of fire, we came to a bay called the 

 Horn of the South. In the recess there was an island like the first, 

 having a lake, and in this there was another island full of wild men. 

 But much the greater part of them were women, with hairy bodies, 

 whom the interpreters called " gorillas." But, pursuing them, we 



