THE THIGH-BONE OF THE GORILLA. 
31 
separated, as is the custom, to stalk the wood in various directions. G-ambo and I kept together. 
One brave fellow went alone, in a direction where he thought he could find a Gorilla. The 
other three took another course. We had been about an hour separated, when Gambo and I 
heard a gun fired, but a little way from us, and presently another. We were already on our way 
to the spot, where we hoped to see a Gorilla slain, when the forest began to resound with the 
most terrific roars. Gambo seized my arm in great agitation, and we hurried on, both filled 
with a dreadful and sickening alarm. We had not gone far when our worst fears were realised. 
The poor brave fellow, who had gone off alone, was lying oil the ground in a pool of his own 
blood, and I thought, at first, quite dead. His bowels were protruding through the lacerated abdomen. 
Beside him lay his gun. The stock was broken, and the barrel was bent and flattened. It bore 
plainly the marks of the Gorillas teeth. We picked him up, and I dressed his wounds as well 
as I could witli rags torn from my clothes. When I had given him a little brandy to drink he 
came to himself, and was able, but with great difficulty, to speak, lie said lie had met the Gorilla 
suddenly, and face to face, and that it had not attempted to escape. It was, he said, a large 
male, and seemed very savage. It was in a gloomy part of the wood, and the darkness I suppose 
made him miss. He said he took good aim, and fired when the beast was only about eight yards off. 
The ball merely wounded it in the side, and it at once began beating its breasts, and with the 
greatest rage advanced upon him. To run away was impossible, for he would have been 
caught in the jungle before he had gone a dozen steps. He stood his ground, and, as quickly 
as he could, reloaded his gun. Just as he raised it to fire, the Gorilla dashed it out of his 
hand, the gun going off in the fall ; and then in an instant, and with a terrible roar, the animal 
gave him a tremendous blow with its immense open paw, frightfully lacerating the abdomen, and 
with this single blow laying bare part of the intestines. As he sank bleeding to the ground, the 
monster seized the gun, and the poor hunter thought he would have his brains dashed out with 
it. But the Gorilla seemed to have looked upon this also as an enemy, and in his rage almost 
flattened the barrel between his strong jaws.” 
In spite of this anecdote, and some drawings by Hu Chaillu, which represent the Gorilla standing 
erect, it is very doubtful, from anatomical reasons, whether this is possible. The comparative 
smallness of some of the most important muscles in the Gorilla, which in man produce the erect 
position, has already been noticed, and it is now necessary, for the same reasons, to examine into 
the nature of the lower limbs. 
The thigh-bone (called from the Latin, femur) of the Gorilla is shorter than the arm-bone, the 
reverse being the case in man; and hence the Ape appears to be too short in the legs for its long 
body and arms. It is stout and rather straight, and has not the forward bend of the same bone in 
man: moreover, some well-marked ridges which run down the back of it, and which were exceedingly 
well developed in the oldest races of men, are deficient in the Gorilla. The same may be said for 
the markings on the bone, which indicate the presence of powerful muscles whose action is to keep 
the thigh straight with the back —or in other words, to keep the body erect. Below the knee are the 
two bones of the leg : the inner one, or shin-bone (the tibia), is very short for the height of the 
animal, and the joint on its lower part, on which moves the ankle-bone, is not so deep and perfect as 
in man, whose weight is constantly to be borne on it whilst it is being moved in walking. The little 
outside bone, called fibula , or the clasp-bone, in the Gorilla is so made that i t adds singularly to the 
inability to maintain the erect posture whilst walking, and even in standing still. The lower end of 
this bone in man forms the prominence outside the ankle, and covers and protects the outside of the 
topmost bone of the ankle, to which the foot is attached. It strengthens it and prevents that turning 
in of the foot, which is antagonistic to the placing the sole flat on the surface of the earth, so that it 
can receive the weight of the body on its broad space and allow of the position so characteristic of man. 
In the Gorilla this bone does not come down as far as the ankle, and all the safeguards against in- 
twisting are not present. Why, is clear enough, because the Gorilla treads on the outside of its foot- 
like hand, and always has the sole turned in. There are some other points which require to be noticed, 
however, about the leg. It is short and evidently wanting in “calf.” It is therefore deficient in that 
symmetry of which many mortals are most proud. Nevertheless, it has a high instep, also a human 
desideratum ; but in spite of this the ankles are thick and shapeless looking. The tendon which 
