THREE GREAT APES. 



261 



Europe. He procured an apple, approached 

 the bars, and said, in a most friendly tone, 



" Here, old lady! Come and get this ap- 

 ple! Come on, now! " 



Instantly the blanket began to heave, it 

 was thrown off, and up rose my lady of the 

 tree-tops. Slowly and majestically she 

 inarched down to the bars, waddling on 

 unsteady legs, and reaching out for things 

 by which to steady herself, like a fat man in 

 a moving street car. Her hair was the color 

 of soot, and her skin looked as if she had 

 been carefully blacked all over with stove 

 blacking. If she had not been well fed, she 

 should have brought a libel suit against her 

 stomach; for it looked as if she had just 

 swallowed a Hubbard squash. 



Her face was ugly, but very interesting, 

 especially when brought into direct com- 

 parison with those of the gorilla's nearest 

 allies — the chimpanzee and orang utan. 

 The chimpanzee has enormous ears; the 

 orang utan has ears that are entirely too 

 small, and both are without elevated noses. 

 The ears of the gorilla, and the size of his 

 eyes, most nearly approach those of man, 

 and the end of his nose is almost as high as 

 that of some of the savages of Africa. In 

 fact, his nose is decidedly suggestive of the 

 nose that obtains in Ethiopia, quite cap- 



able of being improved in shape by a pinch 

 at the end. 



When Du Chaillu returned to the United 

 States, with the first and the finest gorilla 

 skins and skeletons ever made, and offered 

 his entire collection for $5,000, his state- 

 ments regarding the gorilla were doubted, 

 and his offer was flouted. Disgusted by his 

 reception, he left the United States, and 

 Europe secured his matchless collection. 



For my part, I have always considered 

 Mr. Du Chaillu an ill-used man. I remem- 

 ber that his statement regarding the goril- 

 la's habit of beating his own breast when 

 angry, has ever been for the doubting 

 Thomases a particularly shining mark. 

 Judge then of my interest in one thing 

 which Mr. Mansbridge told me of the tem- 

 per and habits of the gorilla in the London 

 Zoo. Said he, " She dislikes the crowd of 

 visitors very much. She often gets quite 

 angry at them, and beats her breast with 

 her fists — quite hard." 



" Does she really beat her breast? " 



" Oh, yes, indeed she does; sometimes a 

 dozen times a day." 



Could I have reached any of Du Chaillu's 

 detractors over the telephone, at that mo- 

 ment, I would have said, with great unction: 



He told you so! 



A SCENE IN THE ^ECOS VALLEY. 



