Wild Beasts and Their Ways 45 
which it was captured, which 
would perhaps give 20 years 
as the maximum age attamed 
in captivity. From such 
slight information, however, 
as may be collected from the 
more intelligent negroes of 
the Congo Forest and the 
Gaboon, local imformation 
would seem to indicate that 
on the part of the gorilla, 
30 years of age 1s equivalent 
to about 55 on the part 
of a man, and 50 years to 
the most advanced old age 
attained as yet in the human 
species. The extreme limit 
of age in the chimpanzee is 
probably a little less. 
The gorilla, when young, 
is easily tamed, but the few 
specimens which have been 
kept in captivity seem to be 
invariably sulky and miser- 
able, and have never bved very 
long after capture. On the 
other hand the chimpanzee 1s 
probably tameable until three- 
quarters grown, while very 
young chimpanzees would 
probably be quite at home 
with their human captors in 
a week. Once tamed they rs 
are as happy as possible From a Photograph. 
unless overtaken by illmess. eo WIESE ASIEUCNN (CUTRTESN/ABIOE 
The chimpanzee becomes Notice the position of the tight hand, which is that taken by the animal 
: z when walking on all fours. 
deeply attached to its guardian 
or master, and will readily make friends as a rule with people that are kind to it. 
It will also take sudden fancies to human beings it has never seen ‘before, and 
voluntarily tender affectionate advances. I have had half-grown chimpanzees in my 
keeping from a day or two after thei capture and have found it possible to get into 
relations with them (so to speak) within a week of their having been made prisoners. 
At this period I have generally managed to caress them without running much risk 
of being bitten or ‘boxed.’ Chimpanzees in Africa after their capture will often 
attempt to rush at a human visitor with the idea of seizing him with the hand, 
carrying the portion seized up to their teeth, bitimg, and then pushing the lmb 
from them. -But they will also not attempt to use them teeth, delivering instead 
swinging, overhand blows—backhanders almost—with the knuckles of the half-closed 
fist. One rather large chimpanzee that I kept in Uganda never seemed to attempt 
to bite any creature that came near it, either human, monkey, or dog, but always 
dealt these swinging blows with the knuckles. In the case of the chimpanzee, however, 
