ANTHROPOID APES. 523 



Of ttese skins we learn tliat somewliere about the sixth century 

 before Christ, Hanno, a Carthaginian, set out on an exploring and 

 colonizing expedition round Africa, and on his return he inscribed 

 a narrative of his voyage in the temple of Saturn, according to the 

 Periplus, which is the only work containing the details of the 

 expedition now extant. The explorer sailed with sixty ships or 

 galleys of fifty oars each, and many thousand men and women, 

 together with provisions and other necessaries. In the course of 

 his voyage south he founded one city and settled certain colonies. 

 The terminus of the voyage was a bay called the Horn of the 

 South. Here, the narrative states, " there was an island, like the 

 first, having a lake, and in this there was another island full of 

 wild men. But much the greater part of them were women with 

 hairy bodies, whom the interpreter called ' gorillas.' But pursuing 

 them we were not able to take the men ; they all escaped, being 

 able to climb the precipices, and defend themselves with pieces of 

 rock. But three women (females), who bit and scratched those 

 who led them, were not willing to follow. However, having killed 

 them, we flayed them, and conveyed the skins to Carthage ; for 

 we did not sail any further, as provisions began to fail." 



Twenty-five hundred years later an American missionary found 

 the skull of an ape, which attra,cted the eye of a fellow-worker, 

 Dr. Thomas Savage, for being possessed of considerable anato- 

 mical knowledge, he at once recognized the fact that it belonged to 

 a species unknown to science. On his return to Boston he brought 

 the skull with him, and showed it to Professor Jeffries Wyman, 

 who corroborated his opinion respecting it. The animal that 

 originally owned it being still nameless, they proceeded to christen 

 it, and without advancing any hypothesis as to its identity with 

 Hanno's wild women or animals, but probably conjecturing that 

 although incapable of proof, yet there was a sHght possibihty of 

 their being the same, they gave it the name gorilla. 



This led to a considerable discussion, and authorities on the 

 subject would not allow that Hanno sailed as far as the Equator, 

 the home of the species to be henceforth known as gorillas, and 

 they pointed out that his description did not in any way apply to 

 the animal, consequently the name was a misnomer, Mr. W. 



