CHAPTER XXIII 



Other Apes — The Apes in History — Habitat — The 

 Orangs — The Gibbon 



IN the various records that constitute the history of 

 these apes are found many novel and incoherent tales, 

 but most of them appear to rest upon some basis of truth. 

 In order to arrive at a more definite knowledge concern- 

 ing them, we may review the data at our command. 



In the annals of the world, the first record that alludes 

 to these manlike apes is that of Hanno, who made a voy- 

 age from Carthage to the west coast of Africa, nearly five 

 hundred years before the Christian era. He described an 

 ape which was found in the locality about Sierra Leone. 

 It is singular that the description which he gave of those 

 apes should coincide so fully with the apes known at the 

 present day ; but it is quite certain that the apes of which 

 he gave an account were neither gorillas nor chimpanzees. 

 There is nothing to show that either of these apes ever 

 occupied that part of the world, or that any similar type 

 has done so. 



The ape described by Hanno was certainly not an 

 anthropoid, but a large dog-faced monkey or baboon, tech- 

 nically called cynoceplialus. These animals are found all 

 along the north coast of the Gulf of Guinea, but there is 

 no trustworthy evidence of any true ape living north of 



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