CAGED IN AN AFRICAN JUNGLE 15 



The gorilla was said to be the most like man, and 

 the chimpanzee next. There were none of the 

 former in captivity, and but few of the latter, and 

 they were kept under conditions that forbade all 

 efforts to do anything in that line. 



As the gorilla and chimpanzee could both be 

 found in the same section of tropical Africa, I 

 selected that as the field of operation, and began to 

 prepare for a journey there to carry out the task I 

 had assumed. 



The part selected was along the equator, and 

 south of it, about two degrees. The locality is 

 infested with fevers, insects, serpents and wild 

 beasts of divers kinds. To ignore such dangers 

 would be folly, but there was no way to see these 

 apes in their freedom, except to go and live among 

 them. 



To lessen, in a degree, the dangers incurred by 

 such an adventure, I devised a cage of steel wire, 

 woven into a lattice with a mesh one inch and a 

 half wide. This was made in twenty-four panels, 

 three feet three inches square, set in a frame of 

 narrow iron strips. Each side of the panels was 

 provided with half-hinges, so arranged as to fit any 

 side of every other panel. These could be quickly 

 bolted together with small iron rods, and, when so 

 bolted, formed a cage of cubical shape, six feet six 

 inches square. 



Any one or more of the panels could be 

 swung open as a door, and the whole structure 

 was painted a dingy green, so that when erected 



