16 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
prodigious muscular development, and are very long, extending nearly as low as the knees. The fore- 
arm is nearly of uniform size from the wrist to the elbow, and, indeed, the great length of the arms, 
and the shortness of the legs, form one of the chief differences between it and man. The arms are not 
long when compared with the trunk, but they are so in comparison with the legs. These are short, 
and decrease in size from below the knee to the ankle, having no calf. The hands, especially in the 
male, are of immense size, strong-boned, and thick ; the fingers are short and large, the circum- 
ference of the middle finger at the first joint being five and a half inches in some Gorillas. The skin 
on the back of the fingers, near the middle, is callous, and very thick, which shows that the most 
usual mode of progression of the animal is on all-fours, and resting on the knuckles. The thumb is 
short, and not half so thick as the forefinger; and the hand Is hairy as far as the division of the 
fingers, which are covered with short thin hairs. The palm of the hand is naked, callous, and in- 
tensely black. The nails are black, and shaped like those of man, but are smaller in proportion, and 
PALM OF THE FOOT OF YOUNG GORILLA. 
RACK OF THE HAND OF YOUNG GORILLA. 
(From tlie Transactions of the Zoological Society of London.) 
project very slightly beyond the ends of the fingers. They are thick and strong, and always seem 
much worn. The hand of the Gorilla is almost as wide as it is long, and in this it approaches nearer 
to that of man than any of the other Apes. The foot is proportionally wider than in man ; the sole is 
callous, and intensely black, and looks somewhat like a giant hand of immense power and grasp. The 
transverse wrinkles show the frequency and freedom of movement of the two joints of the great 
toe-thumb, proving that they have a power of grasp. The middle toe, or third, is longer than the 
second and fourth, and this is unlike the foot in man. The toes are divided into three groups, so to 
speak ; inside the great toe, outside the little toe, and the three others partly united by a web. Du 
Chaillu thinks that in no other animal is the foot so well adapted for the maintenance of the erect 
position, and he erroneously believed that the Gorilla is much less of a tree-climber than any other 
Ape. The foot in the Gorilla is certainly longer than the hand, as in man. These descriptions are 
fairly correct, but it is necessary to examine the results of the later writers on the subject, from whom 
we may glean the following facts. 
The Gorilla has a large head, and on looking at a stuffed specimen one is at once struck with the 
width and length of the face, and the great prominent brows immediately over the eyes. There 
appears to be no forehead, for the head recedes rapidly backwards, and then comes a high 
ridge of hail’, in old males, running from before backwards on the top of the scalp, and meeting 
