44 
Arrival at “ the Bush. 
by the tufted tops. Every hunter consulted upon 
the subject ridiculed the branchy roof tied with 
vines, and declared that the N Hugo’s industry 
is confined to a place for sitting, not for shelter; 
that he fashions no other dwelling; that a couple 
generally occupies the same or some neighbour¬ 
ing tree, each sitting upon its own nest; that 
the Nchfgo is not a “ hermit” nor a rare, nor 
even a very timid animal; that it dwells, as I saw, 
near villages, and that its cry, “ Aoo! Aoo ! Aoo !” 
is often heard by them in the mornings and even¬ 
ings. During my subsequent wanderings in Gorilla 
land, I often observed tall and mushroom-shaped 
trees standing singly, and wearing the semblance 
of the umbrella roof. What most puzzles me is, that 
M. du Chaillu (“ Second Expedition,” chap, iii.) 
“ had two of the bowers cut down and sent to the 
British Museum.” He adds, “ They are formed at 
a height of twenty to thirty feet in the trees, by 
the animals bending over and intertwining a num¬ 
ber of the weaker boughs, so as to form bowers, 
under which they can sit, protected from the rains 
by the masses of foliage thus entangled together, 
some of the boughs being so bent that they form 
convenient seats.” Surely M. du Chaillu must 
have been deceived by some vagary of nature. 
The gorilla-hunters sketch had always re¬ 
minded me of the Rev. Mr. Moffat’s account of the 
Hylobian Bakones, the aborigines of the Mata- 
