7o8 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
The Gorilla (Troglodytes gorilla) has its habitat in the west of Africa, 
is the largest of the simiadce , and 
for many reasons the most inter¬ 
esting to the naturalist, and the 
most exciting to the popular im¬ 
agination. For much more than 
two thousand years explorers and 
navigators had told of a wild 
man of the woods, but it is only 
recently that this singular crea¬ 
ture has been identified. The 
immense size, relatively erect po¬ 
sition, and imitative habits of the 
gorilla may well account for his 
having been mistaken for a wild 
man by those in the midst of 
constant dangers, and who na¬ 
turally endeavored to relate every 
new object to their ordinary and 
familiar experiences. The myths, 
of the ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, 
Romans, Egyptians and Cartha¬ 
ginians were not mere fabrications, 
but mistaken and imaginative ac¬ 
counts of actual experiences. These 
myths were first actual beliefs, 
then popular superstitions, then the 
material for poetic illustration, 
next the scoff of those who be¬ 
lieved their knowledge to be ex¬ 
act and final, and at length the 
subject of scientific investigation, 
as supplying the confused notions, 
of times past in regard to actual 
existences and happenings in the 
world of nature. The gorilla has 
not as yet become possessed of 
the spirit of the scientific move¬ 
ment, so that he does nothing to 
decrease the difficulties in the way 
of making a study of him and his 
habits. His habitat is limited in 
extent, and so distant from our 
great commercial and literary cen¬ 
tres as to multiply the obstacles 
in the path of the enthusiastic 
naturalist. Then, again, Xhegorilla , 
without being in the least timid, pre¬ 
fers to dwell afar from the haunts of man, selecting the deepest parts of the jungle 
SKELETON OF THE GORILLA. 
