I 



1SC3.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE BOX TORTOISES. 173 



But I have brought an accusation against M. Du Chaillu, and I 

 should deserve to be severely blamed if I had brought a charge 

 against any man on light and insufficient grounds. 



Not having been able to find out at the Gaboon whether M. Du 

 Chaillu had killed a Gorilla or not, nobody having visited the inte- 

 rior of the Fernand Vaz since he left it, I determined to go there, 

 and made a tedious voyage by open boat and canoe from Gaboon to 

 Ngumbi. On arriving at this town, pretending of course to be a 

 trader, almost the first question I was asked was whether I would 

 buy Gorillas, as ]M. Du Chaillu did. I refused to buy them, but 

 said that I would give a large reward to any hunter who would get 

 me a shot at one, and also a present to the king. They seemed asto- 

 nished at this, and asked me why I wished to do a thing which other 

 white men had not wished to do. 



Now I had taken with me two interpreters, and managed to make 

 them quarrel, so that there might be no collusion in the matter. 

 I examined Etia, a hunter in whose company M, Du Chaillu pro- 

 fesses to have killed Gorillas, by each interpreter separately. I 

 examined in the same manner the five guides who had escorted him 

 into the Apingi country ; and though they spoke of M. Du Chaillu 

 in high terms, and appeared to have a great affection for him, they 

 all replied that he had never shot a Gorilla. 



If I sit among a jury, and a man is placed in the witness-box and 

 gives his evidence clearly, if he does not change his statements under 

 a severe cross-examination, I admit, of course, the possibility of per- 

 jury, but if I can imagine no reason why he should perjure himself, 

 I am forced to give a verdict according to that evidence. Such a 

 case is the one in point. I say that it is possible M. Du Chaillu has 

 been belied by these men, but T cannot admit that it is probable. 

 In any case I think you will allow that he has not been belied by 

 me, and that any other man would have arrived at the same conclu- 

 sion on receiving similar evidence. 



6. Observations on the Box Tortoises, with the Descrip- 

 tions OF Three New Asiatic Species. By Dr. J. E. 

 Gray, F.R.S., etc. 



The knowledge of the animals of our own country is progressive 

 and only gradually acquired ; and how much more so must it be as 

 regards the species which we receive from a distant country, whence 

 we get only isolated specimens, and often in a more or less imperfect 

 condition, without any account of how they live, and what they eat, 

 and in what manner they conduct themselves ! 



In such cases how can we do more than guess at what is a species, 

 and into what groups the species should be divided ? and yet, because 

 we doubt in what we are doing (and the older we become in the 

 study, the more do we see the necessity for doubting, and the more 

 do we see the imperfection of our materials) — yet, on the doubts 

 which arise from such causes and not from any want of faith in the 

 principle that species are permanent, if we only had materials enough 



