610 APPENDIX. 



watches the approach of the unsuspecting negro. Should he pass 

 under the tree, woe betide him, for the gorilla lets down its terrible 

 hind foot, grasps its victim round the throat, lifts him from the 

 earth, and drops him on the ground dead." 



I was not aware that any monkey in the whole world had a dis- 

 position furtively murderous, or could despatch an innocent victim 

 so promptly and so effectually, especially when we consider the 

 situation of the one, and the supposed aggressive qualities of the 

 other, added to the locality of the hangman. The gorilla, like most 

 of his family, is not famed for strength in the hinder parts, which 

 seem to have been given him by nature, not to offend, but merely 

 as ordinary props to assist the body amongst the trees, where the 

 animal lives and dies. In the fore parts alone, in all monkies, 

 enormous strength and powers of action are centred. Nevertheless, 

 the gorilla, a timid and unoffending animal, prepares itself for battle 

 and strangles a victim which it cannot eat. And how, let me ask, 

 w^mld the gorilla manage to conceal its huge body from the negro, 

 amongst the thick branches of the forests, when we know, to 

 a certainty, that be the forest ever so extensive, you never, by any 

 chance, find the branches of the trees near the ground. It is only 

 towards the top of the trees that thick branches are found. 



Weneslaus Peters, the German Artist. 



I visited Rome in the year of grace 1817. I took with 'me a 

 beautiful red bird, called the scarlet cotinga, which I had prepared 

 in the wilds of Guiana. 



One morning, whilst I was in Canova's studio, and was showing 

 him this bird, a man entered, and seeing it on my forefinger, he 

 appeared, as it were, enraptured, and he earnestly begged that I 

 would lend it him for a few days, in order that he might make a 

 drawing of it for his grand picture of the Creation. I complied with 

 his request ; and he gave the bird a most conspicuous place on a 

 free. 



Sometime after this he brought the scarlet cotinga to my lodgings, 

 and with it an admirably well-executed British pointer dog in crayon, 



