Mr., Mrs., and Master Gorilla. 247 
journey from the Coast, and that the agent of 
that station has killed five with his own hand. 
Mr. Thompson of Sherbro (“ Palm Land,” chap, 
xiii.) says of the chimpanzee : “Some have been 
seen as tall as a man, from five to seven feet high, 
and very powerful.” This is evidently the Nji'na, 
the only known anthropoid that attains tall human 
stature ; and from the rest of the passage, 1 it is 
clear that he has confounded the chimpanzee with 
the Nchigo-mpolo. 
The strip of gorilla-country visited by me was 
an elevated line of clayey and sandy soil, cut by 
sweet-water streams, and by mangrove-lined 
swamps, backed inland by thin forest. Here the 
comparative absence of matted undergrowth makes 
the landscape sub-European, at least, by the side 
of the foul tropical jungle ; it is exceptionally rich 
in the wild fruits required by the huge anthropoid. 
The clearings also supply bananas, pine-apple 
leaves, and sugar-cane, and there is an abundance 
of honey, in which, like the Nchi'go, the gorilla 
delights. The villages and the frequent planta¬ 
tions which it visits to plunder limit its reproduc¬ 
tion near the sea, and make it exceedingly wary 
and keen of eye, if not of smell. Even when 
roosting by night, it is readily frightened by a 
footstep; and the crash caused by the mighty 
1 See chap. ii. 
