2l6 APES AND MONKEYS 



that they sit on the sand along the beach, or bathe in the 

 surf, but they live in the jungle of the low coast belt. 

 Along the lower Congo the gorilla is known only by name, 

 and scores of the natives do not know even that. The 

 nearest point to that river that I have been able to locate 

 the gorilla as a native is in the territory about sixty or 

 seventy miles northwest of Stanley Pool. 



I am much indebted to the late Carl Steckelman, who 

 was an old resident of the coast, a good explorer, a careful 

 observer, and an extensive traveler. He was drowned at 

 Mayumba in my presence in October, 1895. I knew him 

 well and secured from him much information concerning 

 the gorilla. On a map he traced out for me what he 

 believed to be the south and southeast limits of the goril- 

 la's habitat. Xot thirty minutes before the accident in 

 which he lost his life I had closed arrangements with him 

 to make an expedition from Mayumba to the Congo, near 

 Stanley Pool, by one route and return by another, but his 

 death prevented the fulfillment of this plan. 



Dr. Wilson, who was the first missionary at Gaboon, 

 located there in 1S42. About six years after that time he 

 wrote a lexicon of the native languasre. In this the name 

 of the gurilla does not appear at all. If the ape had been 

 so very common, it is not probable that his name would 

 have been omitted from this lexicon. Eight years later 

 Dr. Walker, in a revision of the book, gave the definition, 

 "d. monkey larger than a man." But he had never seen a 

 specimen of the ape, except the skulls and a skeleton 

 which had been brought from other parts. It is true that 

 at Gaboon Dr. Savage first learned about the gorilla and 



