GORILLAS 



193 



the truth was that in those years a few more gorillas 

 appeared to be in the jungle than was usual, but 

 they were not north of the Gaboon River. They 

 were in the Ogowe delta about i° south latitude ; 

 but no one ever supposed that they came from the 

 Crystal Mountains or any other mountains. At that 

 time neither traders nor missionaries had ascended 

 the Gaboon River above Parrot Island (which is less 

 than twenty miles from the mouth), except to make 

 a flying trip by canoe, and nothing was known of 

 that part except what was learned from the natives, 

 and that was very little. During my first voyage I 

 went up that river as far as Nenge Nenge, about 

 seventy-five miles from the coast. I spent two days 

 there with a white trader who had been stationed 

 there for a year, and I was assured by him that there 

 were no gorillas known in that part. The natives 

 report that they have been found in the lowlands 

 south of there in the direction of the Ogowe basin ; 

 but their reports are conflicting, and none of them, so 

 far as I could learn, claim that he is found north of 

 there, nor in the mountains eastward. I admit the 

 possibility that he has been found and may yet 

 inhabit the strip of land between this river and the 

 Ogowe, but I repeat that there is no proof that he 

 was ever found north of the Gaboon. With due 

 respect to Sir Richard Owen and others who have 

 never been in that country, I insist that they are 

 mistaken. 



It is true that one of the tribes living north of the 

 Gaboon has a name for this animal, but it does not 



