CHIMPANZEES. 
27 
With regard to the extent of their range across the continent to the eastward, 
chimpanzees are known to occur to the north-west of the great lakes in the Niam- 
Niam district, in 28° east longitude, and they are likewise recorded from Monbottu. 
Dr. Emin Pasha, writing to the secretary of the Zoological Society of London, 
considers, however, that they range to about the parallel of 32° east longitude. 
Dr. Emin’s letter states, “ It may be interesting for you to hear that an anthropoid 
ape exists in Uganda and Unyoro (the districts lying between the Victoria and the 
Albert Nyanza). I cannot say whether it is identical with the Monbottu 
chimpanzee or not. While staying in these countries the negroes told me much 
about this animal, and in a manuscript map which I forwarded to Dr. Petermann, 
I fixed its northern limit at 2° north latitude. Now I hear that this ape is 
frequent in the thick forests near Ugoma, and I hasten to beg my friend King 
Kabrega for some specimens.” If this application to the king ever reached him it 
does not appear to have been successful. Later on, however, Dr. Emin forwarded 
to England the skull of a chimpanzee shot by himself near Lake Albert Nyanza, 
which does not appear to differ from that of the West African form. 
Like all the other Man-like Apes the chimpanzees are forest- 
dwelling animals, although on the coast of the Loango district they 
are found in the mountains. Their food is usually the various wild fruits which 
grow abundantly in these dense forests, but, as we have seen, at least the bald- 
headed species will take kindly to an animal diet in captivity. 
The following account of the habits of the chimpanzee is taken from Dr. 
Hartmann, who draws much of his information from the German traveller, 
Schweinfurth, as detailed in his work entitled From the Heart, of Africa. Dr. 
Hartmann observes that the chimpanzee either lives in separate families or in 
small groups of families. “ In many districts—as, for example, in the forest-regions 
of Central Africa—its habits are even more arboreal than are those of the gorilla. 
Elsewhere as, for instance, on the south-west coast, it seems to live more upon the 
ground. The Bam chimpanzee of Niam-Niam inhabits the galleries, as they were 
called by Piaggia and Schweinfurth—that is, the forest trees growing one above 
another in stages, of which the growth is so dense that it is difficult to get at them. 
The powerful stems, thickly overgrown with wild pepper, have branches from 
which hang long streamers of bearded moss, and also a parasitic growth of that 
remarkable fern to which Schweinfurth gave the name of elephant’s ear. The 
large tun-shaped structures of the tree termites (white ants) are found on the 
loftier boughs. Other stems, rotten and decayed, serve as supports for the 
colossal streamers of Mucuna urens (a climbing leguminous plant with yellow or 
white flowers and large leathery seed-pods), and form bowers overhung with 
impenetrable festoons, as large as houses, in which perpetual darkness reigns. 
“ When the chimpanzee goes on all-fours, he general]y supports himself on the 
backs of his closed fingers (compare Fig. 6 of the illustration on p. 15) rather than 
on the palm of the hand, and he goes sometimes on the soles of his feet, sometimes 
on his closed toes. His gait also is weak and vacillating, and he can stand upright 
on his feet for a still shorter time than the gorilla. At the same time he seeks 
support for his hands, or clasps them above his head, which is a little thrown back 
in order to maintain his balance.” 
