177 
THE HABITS OF THE GORILLA. 
BY W. WINWOOD READE. 
New Eyeuanp has the honor of having discovered this 
celebrated ape. The first specimen ‘was brought to 
Boston by Dr. Savage. It was discovered by Professor 
Jeffries Wyman, and named. by him after the wild men 
(gorilla) which Hanno mentions. 
Professor Wyman, however, advanced no hypothesis as 
to their identity. It has recently been suggested, and 
even asserted, that the gorilla of Hanno, and the gorillas 
of the present day are the same. But that is a conjecture, 
not impossible indeed, but incapable of anything like 
proof, 
Hanno, a Carthaginian, made an exploring voyage 
down the west coast of Africa. His log, or Periplus, has 
been preserved: He records the’ number of days occu- 
pied by his voyage, mentions its chief incidents, and de- 
scribes the features of the coast sometimes with minute- 
ness. The two great authorities upon the Periplus are 
Gosselin (Geographie des Anciens) and Rennell ( Geog- 
raphy of Herodotus). The former, a sceptic, will not al- 
low that Hanno sailed beyond the limits of the Barbary 
_ Coast; an hypothesis to be rejected: while Rennell, evi- 
dently desirous of taking him as: far as he can, fixes the 
- end of his voyage at a little below Sierra Leone. Now 
the chimpanzee is found in that region; but’ the gorilla 
is found only close to the equator. In the first place, 
pate: Hanno’s voyage must be stretched to the equa- 
r: 
Allowing that he did reach the equator, and that the 
Voleanie peak of Fernando Po was the Currus Deorum, 
“the flames of which seemed to touch the sky,” another 
AMERICAN NAT., VOL. I. 
