SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
297 
ZOOLOGY. 
M. du Chaillu and the Gorillas. — The long- vexed question of the 
authenticity of M. du Chaillu’s travels in Equatorial Africa has received 
fresh light from Mr. W. Winwood Iteade, who writing from Loanda, 
September 7, says : — 
“ Having spent five active months in the gorilla country, I am in a 
position to state that M. du Chaillu has shot neither leopards, buffalos, nor 
gorillas ; that the gorilla does not beat his breast like a drum ; that the 
kulu-kamba does not utter the cry of Kooloo, or anything like it ; that 
the young gorilla, in captivity, is not savage ; and that while M. du Chaillu 
affects to have been a poor fever-stricken wretch at Camma (June 1, 1859), 
he was really residing, in robust health, at the Gaboon.” 
Mr. Reade admits that — 
“ From the same source which afforded me proofs of his (Du Chaillu’s) 
impostures, I learn that he is a good marksman ; possessed of no common 
courage and endurance ; that he has suffered many privations and mis- 
fortunes of which he has said nothing ; that his character, as a trader, lias 
been unjustly blemished ; that his labours, as a naturalist, have been very 
remarkable; and that, during his residence in Africa, he won the affection 
of the natives and the esteem of those who most merit to be esteemed — • 
the missionaries.” 
M. du Chaillu, not content with these concessions, in a letter to the 
Times , endeavours, from Mr. Reade’s letter, to make it appear that the 
charges of misrepresentation still retained against him are groundless ; and 
concludes by proposing that Dr. Gray and his friends shall deposit £2,000 
on the one side, while he, on his part, will deposit £1,000 ; and, this being 
done, he will repair to the gorilla country, and if he succeeded in two 
years in bringing home eight perfect skins of gorillas, preserved with a 
preparation to be supplied by Dr. Gray, he would then claim the £2,000 
in payment of his expenses ; while, on the other hand, in case of failure, 
he would forfeit his £1,000.* 
Habits of the Gorilla. — So much has been asserted of a marvellous 
character concerning these extraordinary animals, that we are glad to 
receive reliable information of a less romantic kind. Mr. Reade repre- 
sents him as dwelling only in the densest parts of the forest, and feeding 
* This proposed wager, on the part of M.du Chaillu, is treated as a joke 
by the Athenaeum (December 6) ; a contributor to which journal says 
that an African trader would supply the five or six specimens in two 
years for £100. We have no desire to defend M. du Chaillu’s illuminations, 
but we certainly think it would have been more satisfactory if Mr. Reade 
had given us the grounds on which he stated that M. du Chaillu had never 
shot gorillas, &c. To us, it seems very much as though Mr. Reade had 
felt bound to write something , and had done it. — Ed. 
VOL. II. — NO. VI. 
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