42 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



longs to the smaller species. The larger, the Troglodytes 

 gorilla, stands 5 feet high and upwards. The T. Niger 

 is found in various parts of the western coasts of tropical 

 Africa, as the Guinea coast and Angola, and also between 

 these distant places, as in this instance on the Calabar River, 

 thus showing a pretty extensive range. The large Chimpanzee, 

 or Troglodytes gorilla, has been brought from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Gaboon River, nearly under the Line, where 

 the T. niger has also been procured ; but future inquirers 

 will probably give the former also a much more extended 

 range, as the huge Chimpanzees, said to have been seen in 

 various parts of western tropical Africa, will probably turn 

 out to be the gorilla; and what have been supposed to be 

 merely exaggerated tales may thus have more truth in them 

 than we have been inclined to give the narrators credit for. 

 The killing of one of those formidable creatures is considered 

 a great feat by an African brave ; and in this instance, ap- 

 parently, the skull had been preserved as of great value, if not 

 also for worship. You observe there is a piece of copper wire, 

 1 foot 11 inches long, and 2-10ths of an inch thick, which is 

 wrapped twice in a vertical direction round the skull, passing 

 through the temporal fossse of each side, behind the super- 

 ciliary ridge above, and the nasal fossse below. Hammered 

 copper wire is the current money of this part of Africa ; so the 

 amount of metal used in ornamenting this skull shows the 

 high value the owner had placed on it. It was taken, I have 

 already mention eel, from what is called a devil-house, for a cer- 

 tain amount of English is spoken by many of the native chiefs 

 and traders. This devil-house, as I have been informed by 

 Dr Sommerville, Secretary to the Mission Board of the 

 U. P. Church, is not, strictly speaking, a place of worship. 

 It is, like their dwelling-houses, built of branches of trees 

 and clay, and is erected at the death, especially, of a great 

 man; after various ceremonies have taken place, and, in 

 former times at least, the sacrifices of human beings, sometimes 

 to the number of hundreds, according to the rank of the de- 

 ceased — the slain being supposed to be thus sent as his 

 slaves and attendants to the other world — their remains are 

 buried in one common tomb, and over it this devil-house is 



