April 29, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



241 



parent gorilla. Everybody took his own way, losing sight 

 of each other, following the sounds, along our several radii, 

 to the fierce centre. But the bark ceased with a yelp; the 

 screams and howl rapidly receded, faster than we could 

 follow. I emerged into a small open glade, where stood 

 Ogula, M. Gaeon and Hector. The dog had come upon a 

 mother and child at the foot of a tree in a hollow, which 

 was still warm. The mother had fled at first sight, but had 

 returned at the screams of the child, which the dog had 

 seized. It was just at this moment that M. Gacon and 

 Ogula saw them. The mother slapped the dog with her 

 hand and the dog dropped the child with a yelp of pain. 

 Ogula allowed the precious moment to pass, fearing to kill 

 the dog with the slugs of his musket. M. Gacon was in 

 his rear and emerged on the scene just as the mother, who 

 had picked up her child, disappeared. He had not a mo- 

 ment's time to get his rifle into position. On our way back 

 to the boat we came to a large glade, where evidently there 

 must have slept that very night not less than twenty gorillas. 

 It was exasperating that we had been only a few hundred 

 yards from that spot the afternoon before and that very 

 morning. All our hands and faces were cut and bleeding 

 by the fearful grass in that frantic rush, and I had hurt my 

 knee by a fall over a log. So we rested and mended our- 

 selves during the afternoon in the village. 



"Saturday, July 20. We all rose at three a.m., and, vol- 

 unteers and all, went to a new place, where on the previous 

 day a large male gorilla had been reported. I did not like 

 the plan, I wanted to go to yesterday morning's region ; but 

 Ogula was overpersuaded by the volunteers. Their plan 

 was to form a line across the long point on which the animal 

 had been heard on the previous afternoon. We entered the 

 forest in the dark of the morning. I am not accustomed to 

 such exhausting work before breakfast, and when, after a 

 fruitless search, we emerged again. I was provoked to flnd 

 that three old volunteers had changed their minds, had not 

 followed us, and were resting comfortably on the sandy 

 beach munching peanuts. 



" Monday, July 22. M. Gacon went out with the hunters 

 to a new place, where a gorilla had been heard on Sabbath, 

 but they returned fruitless; M. Gacon had shot a flying 

 squirrel. He went out again in the afternoon alone, but saw 

 nothing. 



"Tuesday, July 23. Ogula and Osamwamani, ashamed 

 over our ill-success, declared I should have a gorilla that very 

 day, and went without us before daylight to a distant place. 

 They returned in the evening having seen many gorillas, 

 some of which had taken refuge in high tree-tops beyond the 

 range of their muskets. They regretted not having taken 

 us along. We gave up the search for a gorilla. My knee 

 was still inflamed and M. Gacon's enthusiasm waned. We 

 ■could not deny that there were gorillas in abundance, but 

 the difficulties in obtaining them were just as obvious " 



During all these years from 1882 to 1889, while I was pre- 

 vented from hunting myself, I had employed a hunter, 

 Azdze, living at Oranga, about 35 or 40 miles down the river 

 from Kangwe, promising him a good reward if he brought 

 me a dead gorilla in good condition. To get it to me in good 

 condition at Kangwe he would have to start immediately 

 and pull day and night. He brought two carcasses here 

 •while I was away atTalaguga some years ago, and they were 

 lost, there being no one here to open a skull carefully. He 

 ■.sent a third, a small one, just a year ago. It reached me 

 here just as I was starting up to Talaguga. I had actually 

 •stepped into the boat and in five minutes should have started. 



The messenger had arrived during the night, but had taken 

 his leisure to deliver it. I would have stopped the journey, 

 but the carcass was then spoiled, and what I would have 

 given a large sum for twenty-four hours earlier I threw into 

 the river as worth nothing. His last efi'ort was eight months 

 ago, the week before I went on the hunt to the lake. It 

 was a very large old male. Azaze had made a desperate 

 effort to reach here with it safe. He arrived on a Sabbath 

 noon. I did not go to the water-side to see it, my principles 

 would not allow me to work on it on the Sabbath; but early 

 Monday A.M. I got the brain out, but it was then too soft. 

 Kang'WE Mission Station, Ogove River, 



West Africa, October, 2, 1890. 



This year in July I went again to another part of the same 

 lake, Kangwe, and hired two native Bakele hunters. They 

 saw in two days' hunting both elephants and gorillas, but 

 failed to kill any. But some Galwa young men, knowing 

 my errand, went out on their own account and found five 

 gorillas, an old male, three females, and a stout grown lad. 

 The place was in sight and gun-sound of the village where I 

 was waiting across one of the beautiful bays of the lake. 

 The females fled ; the old male showed some fight, but fled 

 when the lad was shot. The carcass was brought to me still 

 warm. I had a carpenter's back-saw and a chisel, I worked 

 with care; but in my anxiety at the last I gave an unfortu- 

 nate blow or two and wounded the brain, and much of it 

 es;uded under the astringing influence of the chloride of zinc ; 

 also, I bad no alcohol and had to use trade rum, and I fear 

 that the brain has not been kept by it from decay. A few 

 days later, I by a very, very rare chance bought two gorilla 

 male children ; they were in good condition and tamed. The 

 servant in whose care I left them at this place, Kangwe, 

 during a few days' absence neglected them and they were 

 attacked by " driver " ants the night of the day before my 

 return. One survived twelve and the other forty-eight hours. 

 Their cries for help had been disregarded, and when I dis- 

 covered them they could only moan. I combed thousands 

 of ants off of them. That servant of mine had also neglected 

 to feed them, and they were partly starved before the ants 

 attacked them. The second of these I finally killed, seeing 

 it was dying; and, working very carefully with the chisel, 

 using no mallet, loosened the brain without injuring the 

 membranes. I was afraid to work down toward the base of 

 the brain, so I left it adhering and sawed away the face so 

 as to make the mass small enough to enter the jar. I en- 

 veloped it and also the first brain in separate muslin bags so 

 that they should not abrade each other. 



That attack by driver ants was made at this house, Kan- 

 gwe; and one of the little fellows, the one that I finally 

 killed, was still living next day when I started up river by 

 my boat to my Talaguga home, 70 miles, a four days' journey. 

 It died at night at my first camp on a sand-bar in the river, 

 and I did the work at midnight by torch-liglit. I put the 

 brain in the chloride, and on arrival at my house three days 

 later, put it into rum. R. H. Nassau. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 In connection with the celebration of the fourth centenary 

 of the discovery of America by Columbus, the ItaHan Botanical 

 Society, says Nature, invites the attendance of botanists of all 

 countries at a Botanical International Congress, to be held at 

 Genoa, from the 4th to the 11th of September. In addition to 

 the meeting for scientific purposes, there will be excursions on 

 the shores of the Mediterranean and in the Maritime Alps; and 

 during the same time will also take place the inauguration of the 



