THE GOEILLA. 537 



over a glass half full of wine and water to enable his cousin 

 ' Tochego,' the chimpanzee, to share his draught, while he gravely 

 watches his enjoyment of it, is really a starthng spectacle. It is 

 not a trick which he has been taught, but the effect of his polite- 

 ness. ' Pongo ' has presented me with his photograph ; but it is 

 by no means so delightfully ugly or so gravely intelligent as he is, 

 and really does not do him justice. He is the most delightful 

 beast of my acquaintance, and if he were allowed to go into 

 society would be, I think, the lion of fashionable salons during the 

 season." 



In July, 1877, the young gorilla arrived, and was taken to the 

 Westminster Aquarium. The Times described the little animal in 

 the following manner : " He is about three years and ten months 

 old, and is believed to have about eighteen months before him 

 before the dangerous period of teething will begin. He is 3f feet 

 in height, of great girth round the chest and stomach, is covered 

 with black or iron-grey hair, and has coal-black face, feet, and 

 hands. The hands are the most strikingly human part of the 

 animal, but as he usually walks on all fours, bending the fingers 

 in to do so, as a child does, there is a flat, callous mass on the back 

 of the fingers near the middle phalanx. When he is pleased at 

 being noticed, or wants to be noticed, Pongo claps his hands with 

 a loud report, squatting on the floor and dropping his hands after- 

 wards in his lap. Sometimes he wraps himself in a cloak he has, 

 or swings about the room by the ropes of a trapeze, but does not 

 climb them. He has for companions a little chimpanzee and a 

 dog, and is much the least active although far the strongest of the 

 party. His foot is more hke the foot of a man than that of any 

 other ape, but the toes are longer than a man's, and better used 

 for grasping : of course he has no tail. He very seldom stands up 

 like a human being, but his favourite position is to sit on the floor 

 and hug a stick or an umbrella, and he is very pleased to be 

 trusted with an umbrella, although he does not always deserve the 

 confidence, because he has a tendency to open it in a new and 

 expeditious way, and no umbrella frame can resist his very great 

 muscular strength of arm and jaw. At a private reception which 

 Pongo held on Saturday, Mr. Frank Buckland tried to teach him 

 to write ; but, although he did make some marks on the paper, 



