GORILLA 217 
of the huge superincumbent body. He balances himself by swinging 
his arms, somewhat as sailors walk on ship-board; and the vast 
paunch, the round bullet-head joined awkwardly to the trunk with 
scarce a vestige of neck, and the great muscular arms, and deep 
cavernous breast, give to this waddle an ungainly horror, which adds 
to his ferocity of appearance. At the same time the deep-set gray eyes 
sparkle out with gloomy malignity; the features are contorted in 
hideous wrinkles ; and the slight, sharply cut lips, drawn up, reveal the 
long fangs and the powerful jaws in which a human limb would be 
crushed as a biscuit. 
“Fortunately the gorilla dies as easily as a man. A shot in the 
breast, if fairly delivered, is sure to bring him down. He falls forward 
on his face, his long muscular arms outstretched, and uttering with 
his last breath a hideous death cry, half roar, half shriek, which, while 
it announces his safety to the hunter, yet tingles his ears with a 
dreadful note of human agony.” 
The walk of the Gorilla is usually on all-fours, not erect. “In this 
posture its arms are so long, that the head and breast are raised con- 
siderably, and as it runs the hind legs are brought far beneath the 
body. The leg and arm on the same side move together, which gives 
the beast a curious waddle. It can run at great speed.” 
The adult Gorilla is untamable, and its strength very great. When 
erect the knees are bent and the back has a “stoop forward.” 
‘The natives eat the meat which is dark red and tough, and the 
skin is thick and strong. The height of the Gorilla varies greatly and 
individuals have been taken from 5 feet 2 inches to over six feet. 
The color changes with age, old Gorillas, as the negroes told Du Chaillu 
are quite gray all over. 
There seem to be really only two species of Gorilla and those 
which have been separated as distinct, and almost invariably given 
specific rank by their describers, can only properly be considered, if 
separable at all, as races of G. Gorttya. The individual variation 
observed in crania is often very great and occasionally, as in the type 
skull of G. g. jacobi, is extraordinary, but if we permit ourselves to 
recognize such a skull as proofs of a distinct species, though a resident 
of the same geographical district as the species from which it was 
separated, we throw open wide the door through which error and 
confusion can easily pass, the result being a multiplication of forms 
unworthy of serious consideration. 
