ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BL'LLETIN 



tliirty-tive inclies high — so tht- little scamp is 

 not really cramped. I am building it a house 

 about seven by eleven feet square and nine feet 

 high. 'I'Iktc we will get better acquainted. At 

 present I can't handle it. although it recog- 

 nizes me and readily distinguishes me from 

 other natives. I allow no one else to feed it or 

 to clean out its cage or to put in its bedding, 

 and it knows wiiom it has to de|)end upon for 

 such things. I keep a native boy to carry away 

 the waste, sweep up the veranda and to search 

 for native food for it. I am not depriving it 

 entirely of its natural diet, and periodically I 

 give it a good feed on the things it likes. It is 

 very fond of iitonos (a species of wild ginger) 

 and it eats the flowers, buds, stalks and leaves 

 of this plant, with avidity. Rice? No, not 

 even a smell of it. It also eats some sweet ba- 

 nanas, at least, it eats part of the rinds and a 

 little of the fruit. 



"My gorilla shows a higher degree of intel- 

 ligence than I had hitherto attributed to the 

 race, and is now becoming more amiable, but 

 she has some ideas of her own. Every day I 

 draw the grass bedding out of the cage in order 

 to exchange it for clean, dry bedding for the 

 night. Every time I begin this operation she 

 protests. Sometimes by seizing as much of the 

 straw as i)ossible and packing it close in a back 

 corner of the cage. At other times she lies 

 down on it, face downward, spreads out both 

 arms and both legs to cover as much space as 

 possible. Always, in putting the fresh straw 

 into the cage, she gets busy and helps to draw 

 it through the bars and arranges it with much 

 care and concern. If she sees anyone except 

 myself touch the box or basket in which I keep 

 her food, she at once wants to fight and some- 

 times makes an angry outcry. Today (Sept. 

 9tli) I think she has eaten nearly a pound of 

 bread, and for the first time has eaten some 

 of the crust. She shows a decided preference 

 for fresh bread. Today she has been in a fine 

 mood. Several times she has beaten a tattoo 

 on the end or floor of the cage, and twenty times 

 or more has made that jieculiar beating of the 

 breast. I only hope that I c.m hand her over 

 to you in this condition. 



"Now a word, apropos to your remark about 

 the temperature of 94 degrees. For some 

 strange reason or the lack of reason you good 

 Christians in the so-called temperate zone, im- 

 agine that it is so hot in the tropics that hens 

 lay hard-boiled eggs. Yes, sometimes I want to 

 send to the co.ast for an overcoat. Just what I 

 have done within the last two weeks : I have 



slept under two blankets every night for three 

 months, but the temperature has ranged ( I im- 

 agine) along in the 50's or perhaps a bit lower. 

 I don't think I have ever seen it 9\ degrees 1"'., 

 here. I have no thermometer of any kind, but 

 tlie Centigrade is the st;ind;ird here, and I think 

 36 to 38 degrees is about tlie hottest thing we 

 have to liandle here. In fact, 33 to 3.5 degrees 

 is. I think, about the run of the kiln here in 

 February, March and April, and the other 

 months a bit lower. But June, July and Aug- 

 ust are the cold months here, and for the last 

 seven or eight weeks I have suffered more from 

 cold than from heat. Of course, gauze under- 

 wear and khaki suiting are not insufferabh' 

 warm clothing, but I have a two and a half 

 yard, double width. West of England cloth 

 (suited for overco.iting) and a cotton blanket 

 of the ordinary kind. Besides those I have 

 double sheeting of twilled stuff and a double 

 waterproof under me, with a waterproof cloth 

 spread under the bed and a mosquito-bar over 

 all. In spite of all this I have to keep myself 

 well tucked in to avoid the cold. In January. 

 February and March I usually sleep under a 

 single blanket, but no night is warm enough 

 to induce me to slee)) without one at least over 

 my loins and back. 



"You must excuse my crooked writing, as I 

 have a very badly swollen thumb, due to a 

 splinter stuck under the nail about a quarter 

 of an inch while hewing out by hand a piece of 

 timber for the door of my gorilla house. The 

 wound is very painful and necessitates a kind 

 of whole-arm movement in writing. 



"I add a paragraph, as we have just had a 

 bit of excitement in my back yard, and I am 

 sorry I can't send you a moving i)icture of the 

 scene. I wasn't at the battle of Waterloo, but 

 I have read some graphic accounts of it, and 

 I imagine that it was about like the scene I have 

 witnessed today in killing a python about 12 

 feet long. The snake had come within some 

 twenty feet of the galley while eight men were 

 at work in building a new one and caught one 

 of my full-grown chickens. At the sound of 

 alarm given by the other fowls my head man 

 sprang to the fore and instantly cried out 

 'Mboma mpolo I' — a bit) boa. Then he and an- 

 other native seized each a pole of about fifteen 

 feet in length and the battle began. I shall 

 not undertake to describe to you the manoeuvres 

 of my black brigade, but briefly stated, they 

 would make a comic opera sit down and look 

 on. By the laws of ])Iiysics that I was taught, 

 called communicated force or motion, I imagine 

 that the antipodal denizens are now feeling the 



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