THE LIVING WORLD. 
711 
mty, brutality and entire surrender to passion and appetite, he does not know 
enough or has not faith enough to enter into combination with his fellows. 
. The gorilla is believed to have been referred to by Hanno and other 
ancient writers, whose allusions were unintelligible or ridiculous until Du 
Chaillu re-discovered the animal. Its habitat is lower Guinea, or the Gaboon 
district of Africa, and its fierceness, savageness, extraordinary strength, and its 
constant effort to shun as well as to resist human companionship, has pre¬ 
vented that continuous study of its woodland habits which might simplify the 
discussions which turn upon the gorilla as the missing link. 
In stature it varies from four to six feet, and is distinguished by the 
length and width of 
its face, the devel¬ 
opment of its lower 
jaw, and the pos¬ 
session of an elevated 
orbital arch. Its nose 
is flat, its eyes sunk¬ 
en, its ears small, 
and its mouth large. 
The neck is thick 
and short, the shoul¬ 
ders exceedingly 
'broad, the chest mas¬ 
sive and sounding 
like a deep base drum 
when the gorilla, in 
his wrath, strikes his 
fists upon it. Its belly 
is large and expan¬ 
sive. It is sometimes 
brownish-black in 
color, though some¬ 
times an iron-gray, 
while the palms of 
the hands and the 
naked face are of a 
deep black. The 
male sleeps on the 
ground, lying on its 
back; the female takes her rest in the trees. It uses both paws and feet 
for walking, is swift, frugivorous, nomadic and solitary, except being devoted 
in its family relations, keeping close to the female and young, so that occa¬ 
sionally as many as half a dozen may be seen together. 
Its hearing is unusually acute; its chest is its “ tendon Achilles,” and the 
hunter who fires and misses is generally lost, for with a single blow the 
creature can annihilate a man. When fatally wounded it utters a dying cry 
of anguish whose humaneness is so great as to haunt the hunter. 
Of monkeys as a class many interesting characteristics may be predicated, 
and endless stories possessing interest have been told. For example, monkeys 
male gorilla covering the retreat of his young. 
