HABITAT OF GORILLA 217 



there secured a skull. From this he made drawings, on which 

 account his name was attached to that of the animal in natu- 

 ral history. It was still a few years later that Dr. Ford sent 

 the first skeleton to America, and Captain Harris sent the 

 first to England. The former skeleton is in the Museum of 

 Zoology at Philadelphia. Both of these specimens may have 

 come from any place a hundred miles away from Gaboon. 



It is possible that at this early date the gorilla may 

 have occupied the peninsula south of the Gaboon River in 

 greater numbers than he has since done, because up to 

 that time there had been no demand for specimens. If 

 this was true at that time, it is not so now ; and if he is 

 not extinct in that part, he is so rare as to make it doubt- 

 ful whether or not he is found there at all as a native. In 

 four journeys along the Ogowe River and the lakes of that 

 valley I made careful inquiries at many of the towns, and 

 the natives always assured me that the gorillas lived on the 

 south side of that river. I spent five days at the village 

 of Moiro, which is located on the north side of the river 

 and about fifty miles from the coast. There I was told by 

 the native woodsmen that no gorillas lived on the north 

 side of the river, but that there were plenty of them along 

 the lakes south of the river. They said that in the forest 

 back of their town were plenty of chimpanzees, and that 

 they were sometimes mistaken for gorillas, but there were 

 absolutely none of the latter in that part. 



In view of these and countless other facts I deem it safe 

 to say that few or no gorillas can be found at any point 

 north of the Ogowe River ; and I doubt if the specimen 

 heard of on the Komo was a genuine gorilla. The natives 



