34 
APES AND MONKEYS. 
creature was of a tierce disposition, and was generally known by the name of 
Mafuka. Although presenting many of the features of a chimpanzee, it had very 
projecting jaws, the ears were relatively small and placed lather high on the head, 
while the end of the nose was wide and expanded. The most remarkable feature 
about this animal was, however, the presence of a great bony ridge overhanging 
the eyes, very much as in the female gorilla. So like, indeed, was Mafuka to a 
gorilla in this respect, that Dr. Hartmann tells us when he first saw her he felt 
almost convinced that he had to do with a female gorilla which had not quite 
attained maturity. This opinion was, however, vigorously confuted by other 
zoologists; and it was subsequently suggested that the creature might be a half- 
breed between the chimpanzee and gorilla. Dr. Hartmann concludes by saying 
that “for me and many other naturalists Mafuka remains up to this time an 
enigma.” Unless, which is very improbable, this animal indicates a third species 
of chimpanzee, we confess that the half-breed theory appears to us the most 
probable solution of the mystery. 
Extinct dim- A word in regard to a fossil-ape found in the north-west of 
panzee. India in rocks, belonging to the Pliocene or later division of the 
Tertiary period, and we have done with chimpanzees. It has always been' a matter 
of surprise that no large Man-like Ape now inhabits the dense tropical forests of 
India or Burma, which would appear to be just as suitable for these creatures as 
are those of Borneo or Equatorial Africa. The discovery in India of a jaw of a 
large ape apparently belonging to the same genus as the chimpanzee shows us, 
however, that large Man-like Apes must have once roamed over the plains of India. 
Why chimpanzees, together with hippopotami and giraffes, which are likewise found 
fossil in India but are now confined to Africa, should have totally disappeared from 
the former country, is, however, one of those puzzling problems connected with the 
distribution of animals which we have but little hope of answering satisfactorily. 
The fossil Indian chimpanzee was found in the arid districts of the Punjab, 
and since we know that the living Man-like Apes dwell in the deepest gloom and 
solitude of primeval forests, where vegetation grows luxuriously and offers a 
constant supply of fruits throughout the year, we may probably infer that the 
Indian chimpanzee inhabited a similar forest - clad country; and that, conse¬ 
quently, the present area of the Punjab was in parts at all events clothed with 
forests in which dwelt this ape, instead of being, as now, a sun-scorched and 
somewhat desolate region. Evidence of the former existence of these forests is 
afforded by the occurrence of numbers of fossil tree-stems in various parts of the 
same series of rocks from which the remains of the fossil chimpanzee were 
obtained. 
The Gorilla. 
Genus Gorilla. 
Under the heading of the Chimpanzee we have already seen how, as far back 
as 1590, the English sailor Battel heard of the existence of a gigantic ape living 
in the forests of Guinea, and known to the natives as the Pongo; this ape being 
