80 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
The strip of gorilla-country visited by me was an 
elevated line of clayey and sandy soii, cut by sweet- 
water streams, and by mangrove-lined swamps, backed 
iidand by thin forest. Here the comparative absence 
of matted undergrowth makes the landscape sub- 
European, at least, by the side of the foul tropical 
jungle ; it is exceptionally rich in the wild fruits 
required by the huge anthropoid. The clearings also 
supply bananas, pine-apple leaves, and sugar-cane, and 
FEMALE GORILLA AND HER YOUNG. 
there is an abundance of honey, in which, like the 
Nchfgo, the gorilla delights. The villages and the 
frequent plantations which it visits to plunder limit its 
reproduction near the sea, and make it exceedingly 
wary and keen of eye, if not of smell. Even when 
roosting by night, it is readily frightened by a footstep ; 
and the crash caused by the mighty bound from branch 
to branch makes the traveller think that a tree has 
fallen. 
The gorilla breeds about December, a cool and dry 
