84 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
give me an authentic instance of manslaughter by our 
big brother. 
The modifications with which we must read the 
picturesque pages of the “ Gorilla Book ” are chiefly 
the following. The Gorilla is a poor devil ape, not a 
“ hellish dream-creature, half man, half beast.” He is 
not king of the African forest ; he fears the Njego or 
leopard, and, as lions will not live in these wet, wooded, 
and gameless lands, he can hardly have expelled King 
Leo. He does not choose the “ darkest, gloomiest 
forests,” but prefers the thin woods, where he finds 
wild fruits for himself and family. His tremendous 
roar does not shake the jungle : it is a hollow apish cry, 
a loudish liuhh ! liuhh ! hulih ! explosive like the puff 
of a steam-engine, which, in rage becomes a sharp and 
snappish bark — any hunter can imitate it. Doubtless, 
in some exceptional cases, when an aged mixture of 
Lablache and Dan Lambert delivers his voce di petto, 
the voice may be heard for some distance in the still 
African shades, but it will hardly compare with the 
howling monkeys of the Brazil, which make the forest 
hideous. The eye is not a “ light grey ” but the brown 
common to all the tribe. The Gorilla cannot stand 
straight upon his rear quarter when attacking or other- 
wise engaged without holding on to a trunk : he does 
not “ run on his hind legs ; ” he is essentially a tree 
ape, as every stuffed specimen will prove. He never 
gives a tremendous blow with his immense open paw ; 
doubtless, a native legend found in Battel and Bowdich ; 
nor does he attack with the arms. However old and 
male he may be, he runs away with peculiar alacrity : 
though powerfully weaponed with tigerish teeth, with 
“ bunches of muscular fibre,” and with the limbs of 
Goliah, the gorilla, on the seaboard at least, is 
essentially a coward ; nor can we be surprised at his 
want of pluck, considering the troubles and circum- 
stances under which he spends his harassed days. 
Finally, whilst a hen will defend her chicks, Mrs. 
Gorilla will fly, leaving son or daughter in the hunter’s 
hands. 
