10 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
Collecting others, he at last handed them over to a fellow labourer, Dr. Savage, who possessed 
much anatomical knowledge. Every attempt was made to obtain even a dead Gorilla, but without 
satisfactory results. Savage lived for years in the neighbourhood of the Gaboon river, and not only 
gradually accumulated a fine collection of the bones of the great Ape, which he at first thought was the 
Orang-Utan, and which he subsequently described as the Gorilla, but also put together a history of its 
habits and aspect as gleaned from the nati ves. He was in the heart of Gorilla Land, which may be 
said to extend from ten to fifteen degrees of latitude on either side of the equator. It is bounded by 
the sea on the west, and extends to an unknown distance to the east, being watered by the Gaboon, 
Danger, and Fernandez Yas rivers. Mountainous far from the coast, and very undulating every- 
where, it consists of dense forest, wild jungle, and open places. Traversed as this country is by 
navigable rivers which are visited by traders, it struck this observer that it was indeed remarkable that 
the Gorilla should have been so unknown to civilised men; but he was soon impressed with the dread 
the natives had of it, and also with the fact that it sought the 
remoter parts of the neighbouring woods. From the descriptions 
of the natives, who never attempted to interfere with the Gorilla 
except in self-defence, its height is above five feet, and it is dis- 
proportionately broad across the shoulders. It is covered with 
coarse black hair, which greatly -resembles that of the Chimpanzee; 
with age it becomes grey, and this fact has given rise to the 
report that there are more kinds than one. Resembling a huge 
Ape in shape, with a great body, comparatively short legs with 
large liind-thumbs, its bulk is considerable, and its arms, reaching 
further down than in man, enable it to grasp and climb well. It 
does not possess a tail, and the head has a wide and long black 
face, a very deep cheek, great brows over the deeply-seated hazel 
eyes, a flat nose, and a wide mouth with very strong teeth. The 
front view of the skull of top of the head has a crest of longish hail*, and elsewhere it is 
the gorilla. exceedingly thick and short. The belly is very large. From 
inquiry he ascertained that when walking, their gait is shuffling, 
and the body, which is never upright like that of man, moves from side to side in going along. 
Usually it walks by resting the hands on the ground and then bringing the legs between them, and 
swinging the body forward. They live in bands, and the females generally exceed the males 
in number. They are exceedingly ferocious, never running away from man, and the few that 
have been captured were killed by elephant hunters and native traders as they came suddenly upon 
them whilst passing through the woods. 
It was said, at this time, by the natives, that the Gorilla makes a sleeping-place like a hammock, 
by connecting the branches of a sheltered and thickly-leaved part of a tree by means of the long, tough, 
slender stems of parasitic plants, and lining it with the dried broad fronds of fern, or with long grass. 
This hammock-like abode may be seen at different heights, from ten to forty feet from the ground, but 
there is never more than one such nest in a tree. They avoid the abodes of man, but are most com- 
monly seen in the months of September, October, and November, after the negroes have gathered in 
their outlying rice-crops, and have returned from the “ bush ” to their valleys. So observed, they are 
described to be usually in pairs, or if more, the addition consists of a few young ones of different ages 
and apparently of one family. The Gorilla is not gregarious. The parents may be seen sitting on a 
branch resting their backs against the tree trunk munching fruit, whilst the young Gorillas are at play, 
leaping and swinging from branch to branch with hoots or harsh cries of boisterous mirth. This rural 
felicity, however, has its objectionable sides, for occasionally, if not invariably, the old male, if he be 
seen in quest of food, is usually armed with a short stick, which the negroes aver to be the weapon 
with which he attacks his chief enemy the elephant. Not that the elephant directly or intentionally 
injures the Gorilla, but deriving its subsistence from the same source, the Ape regards the great pro- 
boscidian as a hostile intruder. When, therefore, he sees the elephant pulling down and wrenching off 
the branches of a favourite tree, the Gorilla, stealing along the bough, strikes the sensitive proboscis 
of the elephant with a violent blow of his club, and drives off the startled giant trumpeting shrilly 
