GORILLAS 



203 



myself. He was killed in the basin of Lake Fernan 

 Vaz, not more than two or three hours from my 

 cage, and his body was brought to me at once. A 

 good idea of his size can be obtained by reference 

 to another cut given herewith, where I have some 

 natives skinning him. In this picture he is sitting 

 flat on the sand ; his body is limp, and is somewhat 

 shorter than it was in life, and yet it can be seen 

 that the top of his head is higher than the hip of the 

 man who is holding him. On the left of the gorilla, 

 in the foreground, sits the man who killed him. He 

 is sitting on a log, and it did not occur to me until 

 too late to place them side by side in order to make 

 a comparison. The body and head of this gorilla as 

 he sits measured nearly four feet from the base of 

 the spinal column to the top of the head. I did not 

 weigh him, but made an estimate by lifting him in 

 my hand, and believed he weighed at least 240 lbs. 

 Yet he was not an old specimen, but if compared to 

 No. 7, in which the crests are well developed, it is 

 found to be larger, and other things point to the fact 

 that he was older. 



I am aware that one specimen of itself does not 

 prove anything, but it shows in this case that this 

 ape does not always develop that crest. His head 

 was surmounted by the red crown which we have 

 described, and No. i, which is the skull of Othello, 

 had the same mark. He was captured near the 

 place where No. 6 was killed. No. 2, which is the 

 skull of a young female nearly four years old, had the 

 same, and she was also captured in the same basin, 

 but on the opposite side of the lake. 



