214 APES AND MONKEYS 



in the years mentioned. There had never been a specimen 

 brought to civilization. It was about that time that Dr. 

 Ford sent a skeleton to America, and one had been previ- 

 ously sent to England. Some years earlier Dr. Savage had 

 announced the existence of such a creature and had sent 

 sketches of a skull, but it was more than ten years after 

 the period in question that Paul du Chaillu brought out 

 the first skins of gorillas and gave detailed accounts of 

 their character, habits, and geographical distribution. From 

 these facts it is not rash to conclude that the migrations 

 of 185 i and 1852 are mere matters of fancy. 



Gorillas are found in the Ogowe delta, about one degree 

 south latitude ; but not one has ever been known to come 

 from the Crystal Mountains. At the time above mentioned 

 neither traders nor missionaries had ascended the Gaboon 

 River above Parrot Island (which is less than twenty miles 

 from the mouth), except to make a flying trip by canoe. 

 Nothing was known of those parts except what was learned 

 from the natives, and that was very little. During my 

 first voyage I went up the river as far as Nenge Nenge, 

 about seventy-five miles from the coast. At that place I 

 spent two days with a white trader, who had been stationed 

 there for a year. I was assured by him that there were 

 no gorillas in that section. The natives report that they 

 have been found in the lowlands south of there, in the 

 direction of the Ogowe basin ; but their reports are con- 

 flicting, and none of them, so far as I could learn, claims 

 that they are found north of there, nor in the mountains 

 eastward. I admit that they may have been found in, and 

 may yet inhabit, the strip of land between the Gaboon and 



