FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 
261 
much in request that twenty-five dollars is paid for a fine specimen. 
The most interesting animals of these countries are beyond all 
doubt the gorilla and the chimpanzee. The gorilla is the largest 
of the man-like apes, an animal rather shorter, but considerably 
more broad-shouldered than a strong man. Although the gorilla 
was mentioned more than 2,000 years ago, by Hanno, the com¬ 
mander of a Carthaginian fleet, it is even now very imperfectly 
known. If the statements respecting the strength and savageness 
of the gorilla are only half true, there is little propsect of ever being 
able to bring over full-grown specimens to America; and the young 
gorilla presented to the zoological garden of Berlin unfortiinately 
fell a victim to the foreign climate. Even the skin and skeleton, as 
well as the remains of the gorilla, preserved in spirits, are ranked 
among the greatest treasures of our Natural History Museums. 
THE FAMOUS CHIMPANZEE. 
The second representative of the African man-like apes is 
comparatively frequent, and is well-known under the name of the 
chimpanzee, though few full-grown specimens have been brought 
to this continent; it is much smaller, slenderer, and more elegantly 
built than the gorilla, and often measures sixty inches in length. 
While the gorilla frequents the densest woods, and is only found in 
the lands near the coast, the chimpanzee inhabits the whole of the 
West African sub-division, and seems to prefer being near the open 
clearings of the forests; both kinds of ape feed principally on fruits, 
nuts, and the young shoots of trees, perhaps also on roots. 
As to the mental qualities of the chimpanzee in captivity, much 
has been written, and it is agreed that the animal may be ranked 
among the most highly gifted of its race. It not only learns to 
know its master, to love its friends, and avoid its enemies; it is not 
only inquisitive, but actually desirous of knowledge. Any object 
which has once excited its attention increases in value as soon as it 
has learned how to use it; the chimpanzee is cunning, self-willed, 
but not stubborn, desiring what is good for itself, betraying humor 
and caprices; one day cheerful ond excited, another depressed and 
sullen. 
