282 The National Geographic Magazine 



rapher took its picture. Doubtless the 

 California rancher who raised this giant 

 would tell the Eastern farmer that it 

 was "not a good year for pumpkins, 

 either." Another colossal pumpkin 

 raised by J. J. Teague in 1901 weighed 

 230 pounds, and when dug out after 

 the jack o' lantern fashion afforded a 

 playhouse for the rancher's little 

 daughter, if we may judge by the pic- 

 ture. In the old days California pears 

 were famous all over the civilized world 

 for their size, but today this reputation 

 applies to all fruits. Strawberries 

 grown here are sometimes so large that 

 three or four would fill a plate. Sweet 

 potatoes are often mammoth — four feet 

 in length — while the oranges, the im- 



mense navels which sometimes hang 

 upon the trees for a year, probably 

 excel in size any similar fruit an3'where. 

 In a Pasadena garden in the summer of 

 1902 could be seen string beans with 

 pods three feet in length, presenting an 

 extraordinary spectacle, and as though 

 the vine was hung with green snakes. 

 But this extraordinary growth cannot 

 be attributed to the soil of Southern 

 California, as the seeds are said by Mr 

 Charles Richardson to have come origi- 

 nally from China, the growth not being 

 abnormal, though doubtless wheu the 

 wonderful plants are distributed over 

 the state some patriotic Californian will 

 claim that the bean is due to the remark- 

 able soil and climate of California.' 



PAUL DU CHAILLU 



PAUL BELLONI DU CHAILLU, 

 who died at St Petersburg April 

 30, was born in New Orleans 

 July 31, 1835. His birthplace was thus 

 the same city to which Stanley nearly 

 twenty years later drifted as a cabinboy, 

 to be befriended and adopted by the 

 merchant Stanley. Little is known of 

 Du Chaillu's ancestors, except that they 

 were of one of the old French Huguenot 

 families that had settled in Louisiana. 

 His father, a man of considerable means, 

 was engaged in the West African trade 

 and owned a ' ' factory ' ' or trading depot 

 on the Gaboon coast, a few miles north 

 of the Equator. Paul as a boy accom- 

 panied his father to Africa and lived for 

 three or four years on the coast. He 

 was a bright, enterprising youngster, 

 who spent most of his time talking with 

 the natives, hearing their stories and 

 learning their dialects and ways of 

 thinking and living. He liked better 

 to listen to the stories of the native 

 traders than to learn the business of his 

 father. It was this personal knowledge 

 of the native which enabled him after- 



ward to travel for thousands of miles in 

 the interior without being obliged to 

 kill a single native. 



About 1853 his father took him back 

 to the United States, but the wild tales 

 the boy had heard had fascinated him 

 and excited him to find out how much 

 was true of what the seacoast natives 

 said of the cannibals, pygmies, wildmen 

 or gorillas, and other marvels of the 

 Great Forest. No white man had pre- 

 viously penetrated more than a few 

 miles into the interior along this part 

 of the coast. 



In the fall of 1856 he sailed from New 

 York in a three-masted schooner and 

 was landed at Gaboon in December. 

 The following three and one-half } T ears 

 he passed exploring a section of Africa 

 stretching from Gaboon 320 miles in- 

 land and 250 miles north and south. 

 On his return to New York in 1859 he 

 wrote the story of his discoveries, which 

 was published by Harper & Brothers in 

 1 86 1 under the title of "Explorations 

 and Adventures in Equatorial Africa ; 

 with Accounts of the Manners and Cus- 



