GORILLAS 



195 



that. The nearest point to that river that I have 

 been able to locate the gorilla as a native, is in the 

 territory about sixty or seventy miles north-west of 

 Stanley Pool. 



I am indebted to the late Carl Steckelmann, who 

 was drowned at Mayumba in my presence last 

 October. He was an old resident of the coast, a 

 good explorer, a careful observer, and an extensive 

 traveller. I knew him well, and secured from him 

 much information concerning the gorilla. He traced 

 out with me, on a map, what he believed to be the 

 south and south-east limits of the gorilla. Not thirty 

 minutes before the fatal accident in which he lost his 

 life, I had closed arrangements with him to make an 

 expedition from Mayumba to the Congo, near Stanley 

 Pool, by one route, and return by another, but his 

 death prevented its fulfilment. 



Dr. Wilson, who was the first missionary at Gaboon 

 and located there in 1842, wrote a lexicon of the 

 native language about six years after that time. In 

 this he entirely omits the name of the gorilla. Dr. 

 Walker eight years later gave the definition, **a 

 monkey larger than a man." But he had never 

 seen a specimen of the ape, except the skulls and 

 a skeleton which were brought from other parts. 

 It is true that Dr. Savage first learned at Gaboon 

 about the gorilla, and secured a skull at that place 

 from which he made drawings, and on which account 

 his name was attached to the animal in Natural 

 History. Dr. Ford a few years later sent the first 

 skeleton to America, and Captain Harris sent the 



