APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 5 
are much smaller, and the ridges above the eyes are not noticeable, a feature common also to the 
young. 
Timid, superstitious natives and credulous or untrustworthy travelers have left still wrapped 
in mystery many of the habits of this mighty ape, whose fever-stricken, forest-clad haunts render 
investigation always difficult, often impossible. Many tales of its ferocity and strength are 
obviously untrue, but we think that too much has been disbelieved. That a huge arm descends 
from a tree, draws up and chokes the wayfarer, must be false, for intelligent natives have con- 
fessed to knowing no instance of the gorilla attacking man. That it vanquishes the leopard is 
probable ; that it has driven the lion from its haunts requires proof. Nor can we accept tales of 
the carrying off of Negro women; and the defeat of the elephants, too, must be considered a 
fiction. 
But we must believe that this ape, if provoked or wounded, is a terrible foe, capable of rip- 
ping open a man with one. stroke of its paw, or of cracking the skull of a hunter as easily as a 
squirrel cracks a nut. There is a tale of a tribe that kept an enormous gorilla as éxecutioner, 
which tore its victims to pieces, until an Englishman, doomed to meet it, noticing a large swell- 
ing near its ribs, killed it with a heavy blow or two on the weak spot. 
Gorillas live mainly in the trees on whose fruit they subsist; they construct a shelter in the 
lower: boughs for the family, and as a lying-in place for the female. The male is said to sleep 
below, with his back against the tree—a favourite attitude with both sexes—to keep off leopards. 
On the ground it moves.on all-fours, with a curious swinging action, caused by putting its hands 
with fingers extended on the ground, and bringing its body forward by a half-jump. Having a 
heel, it can stand better than:other apes; but this attitude is not common, and Du Chaillu appears 
to have been, mistaken when he de- 
scribes the gorilla as attacking upright. 
In captivity only immature speci- 
mens have been seen—Barnum’s great 
ape being one of the larger forms of 
chimpanzee. Accounts vary as to the 
temper of the gorilla, some describing 
it as.untamable, while others say it 
is docile and playful when young. 
There is a wonderful tale that a 
gorilla over 6 feet high was captured 
near Tanganyika, but nothing more 
has reached us about it. 
When enraged, a gorilla beats its 
breast, as the writer was informed by. 
a keeper, who thus confirmed Du 
Chaillu’s account. Its usual voice is 
a grunt, which, when the animal is 
excited, becomes a roar. 
THE ORANG-UTAN 
This great red ape was mentioned 
by Linnzus in 1766, and at the begin- 
ning of the last century a specimen eae —oo 
living in the Prince of Orange's col- By permission of Herr Omlaay) [Hamburg 
: : A MALE GORILLA 
lection was described by Vosmaer. ; ; ak 
Pet This photograph of the largest gorilla known was taken immediately after death 
There are three varieties of the by Herr Paschen at Yaunde, and gives an excellent idea of the size of these ani- 
ORANG, called by the Dyaks MIAS- mals as compared with Negroes. The animal weighed goo /bs. 
, 
