252 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 



of fuscous-brown and grey hair which covers with a varying depth of tint the trunk, 

 arms, and thighs. The naked part of the skin of the face appears to have been 

 black, or of a very dark lead-colour; a few scattered straight hairs, mostly black, 

 represent the eyebrows. A narrow moustache borders the upper lip : the whole of the 

 lower lip and sides of the head are covered with hair of the prevailing grey-fuscous 

 colour. 



In PI. XLIV. the male Gorilla (fig. 1) is drawn by Mr. Wolf walking off in the dis- 

 tance, in the attitude suggested by the callosities on the back of the fingers of the 

 fore-hand '.] 



The foregoing pages include the results of direct observations made on the first and 

 only entire specimen of the Gorilla which has reached England. At the period when 

 they were made, no other description of its external characters had reached me ; and 

 if the majority of them be found to agree with previously recorded observations by 

 naturalists enjoying earlier opportunities of studying similarly preserved specimens, the 

 rarity and importance of the species may excuse, if it does not justify, a second de- 

 scription from direct scrutiny of a new specimen by an old observer of the anthropoid 

 Quadrumana. 



A more important labour, however, remains. The accurate record of facts in natural 

 history is the first duty of the observer ; the true deduction of their consequences is 

 his next aim. I proceed, therefore, to reconsider the conclusions in which my ex- 

 perienced French and American fellow-labourers in natural history differ from me, 

 and in which I seem to stand alone. 



The first question in regard to the Gorilla is its place in the scale of nature, and its 

 true and precise affinities. 



Is it, or is it not, the nearest of kin to Human kind ? Does it form, like the Chim- 

 panzee and Orang, a distinct genus in the anthropoid or knuckle-walking group of 

 Apes? Are these Apes, or are the long-armed Gibbons, more nearly related to the 

 genus Homo ? Of the broad-breast-boned Quadrumana, are the knuckle-walkers or the 

 brachiators, i. e. the long-armed Gibbons, most nearly and essentially related to the 

 Human subject ? I proceed to discuss the first as the most important question. 



At the first aspect, whether of the entire animal or of the skeleton, it may be freely 

 admitted that the Gorilla strikes the observer as being a much more bestial and brutish 

 animal than the Chimpanzee. All the features that relate to the wielding of the strong 

 jaws and large canines are exaggerated ; the evidence of brain is less — its chamber is 

 more masked by the outgrowth of the strong occipital and other cranial ridges. But 

 the impression so made — that the Gorilla is less like Man — is the same which is derived 

 from comparing a young with an adult Chimpanzee, or some small tajJless Monkey 

 with a full-grown male Orang or Chimpanzee. Taking the characters that cause that 

 impression at a first inspection of the Gorilla, most of the small South-American 



' This inference has been confirmed by Mr. du Chaillu's observations on the Uving Gorilla and its foot-marks. 



