250 GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES 



I selected a place in the forest where I found some 

 tracks of the animal along the edge of a dense 

 thicket of batuna. Under cover of the foliage I set 

 up two pairs of stakes which were crossed at the 

 tops, and to them was lashed a short pole forming 

 something like a sawbuck. To this was fastened 

 the camera, to which had been attached a trigger 

 made of bamboo splits. One end of a string was 

 fastened to the trigger, and the other end carried 

 under a yoke to a distance of eight feet from the 

 lens. At this point was attached a fresh plantain 

 stalk and a nice bunch of the red fruit of the batuna. 

 Upon this point the camera was focussed, the trigger 

 was set, and it was left to await the gorilla. That 

 afternoon I returned to find that something had 

 taken the bait, broken the string, sprung the trigger 

 and snapped the camera. I developed the plate, but 

 could find no image of anything except the leaves in 

 front of it. I repeated the experiment with the 

 same results, but could not understand how anything 

 could steal the bait and yet not be shown in the 

 picture. The third time I did this I was gratified to 

 find the image of a gorilla, and also to discover the 

 cause why the others had not succeeded. The deep 

 shadows of the forest make it difficult to take a 

 photograph without giving it a time exposure, and 

 when the sun is under a cloud or on the wrong side 

 of an object it is quite impossible. The leaves that 

 were shown in the first two plates were only those 

 which were most exposed to the light, and all the 

 lower part of the picture was without detail. In the 



