248 Mr., Mrs., and Master Gorilla. 
bound from branch to branch makes the traveller 
think that a tree has fallen. 
The gorilla breeds about December, a cool and 
dry month : according to my bushmen, the period 
of gestation is between five and six months. The 
babe begins to walk some ten days after birth ; 
“ chops milk” for three months and, at the end of 
that time may reach eighteen inches in height. M. 
du Chaillu makes his child, “Joe Gorilla,” 2 feet 
6 inches when under the third year: assuming the 
average height of the adult male at 5 feet to 
5 feet 6 inches, this measurement suggests that, 
according to the law of Flourens, the life would 
exceed thirty years. I saw two fragmentary skins, 
thoroughly “ pepper and salt; ” and the natives 
assured me that the gorilla turns silver-white with 
age. 
It is still a disputed point whether the weight is 
supported by the knuckles of the forehand, like the 
chimpanzee, or whether the palm is the proper 
fulcrum. M. du Chaillu says (“ First Expedition,” 
chap, xx.), “ the fingers are only lightly marked on 
the ground ; ” yet a few pages afterwards we are 
told, “ The most usual mode of progression of the 
animal is on all-fours and resting on the knuckles.” 
In the “Second Expedition” (chap, ii.) we read, 
“The tracks of the feet never showed the marks of 
toes, only the heels, and the track of the hands 
1 
showed simply the impressions of the knuckles.” 
