most impenetrable jungle, where they are found
in pairs, the male accompanied by a single
female. The male sits down on a rock, or against
a tree, in the gloomiest corner, where the
brightest sun could with difficulty penetrate,
and the female feeds by its side, and gives the
alarm by running off with loud and sudden cries
and shrieks. In case of intrusion, when the
female has departed, the male, after remaining
still for a moment, with a savage frown on its
face, slowly rises to his feet, and looking with
glowing eyes at the intruder, begins to beat his
breast, and, lifting up his round head, utters a
frightful roar. This commences with several
sharp barks, like an enraged or mad dog, and then
follows a long deeply guttural rolling roar,
continuing more than a minute. This roar, doubled
and multiplied by the resounding echoes of the
forest, fills the hunter's ears like the deep
thunder of a coming storm, and is heard through
the stillness of the forest to a great distance.
The horror of the animal's appearance at such
times is stated as beyond description, and must
be fully appreciated, as it is not considered safe
for the hunter to fire till he approaches very
near. When aware of danger, and the gorilla
nnines to attack, "he advances by short
stages, stopping occasionally to utter his diabolical
roar and to beat his breast with his paws,
which produce a dull reverberation as of an
immense bass-drum. Sometimes, after standing
for a while, he seats himself and beats his chest,
looking fiercely at his adversary. When he
advances, his walk is a waddle from side to side,
his short hind legs being evidently somewhat
inadequate to the proper support of the huge
body. He balances himself by swinging his
arms as sailors walk on shipboard, and the vast
paunch, the round bullet head, joined awkwardly
to the trunk, with scarce a vestige of neck,
and the great muscular arms and deep cavernous
breast, give to this waddle an ungainly horror,
which adds to the ferocity of his appearance."
Mr. du Chaillu states that he has had to wait
for five minutes during this advance until the
animal approaches to within from five to eight
yards, at which distance alone it is safe to fire.
A shot in the breast is sure to bring him down,
and the mark is broad, but if the shot should
fail to hit a vital part, or the gun miss fire, the
chances of the hunter are but small, and if he
runs he exposes himself to certain death.

The common walk of the gorilla when not
enraged is not on his hind legs, but on all
fours, and in this posture the arms are so long
that, the head and breast are raised considerably,
and the hind legs in running are brought far
beneath the body, while the leg and arm on the
same side move together, giving the beast that
curious kind of motion already alluded to as a
waddle. The female escapes by running away,
seldom attacking, and even the young rarely
seem to take to trees when pursued, preferring
to escape by running. Both young and old can,
however, climb without difficulty.

The strength of the gorilla is enormous. A
young one of two or three years old required four

stout men to hold it, and even then in its
struggles bit one severely. With its jaws the
grown male can dent a musket-barrel, and with
its arms break trees from four to six inches in
diameter. In attacking it uses its arms; but in
a close struggle no doubt its teeth come into
action, for the jaws are of tremendous weight,
the muscles large, and the canine teeth or tusks
exceedingly powerful.

On several occasions the young of the gorilla
has been taken. Once a male, and afterwards
a female, each from two to three years old, was
secured, and at another time an exceedingly
young baby, which died almost immediately,
The difficulty of keeping the young animals in
any confinement that could be extemporised
seems to have been very great, and their
singular strength and ferocity, combined with a
certain amount of almost diabolical cunning,
were such as to induce all persons who had once
come in their way to give them a wide berth.

Although induced to eat, there seemed no
approach whatever to domestication or taming,
and neither of the boy-gorillas survived its
capture more than ten days. Morose and savage
in the extreme, utterly fearless, and altogether
untamable either by kindness or starvation, but
interest could be felt in the individual;
but it was important to be able to study the
nature of the juvenile Hercules, and every effort
seems to have been made in vain to preserve
one for a time alive. The cause of death was
not determined, but seemed to be connected
with the restless chafing of a highly excitable
spirit, which could not bear either captivity or
the sight of man, appearing to regard the latter,
especially if negro, as its greatest natural
enemy.

On the whole, it would seem that no animal
yet described can be compared with the gorilla
for unsightliness, fierceness, strength, and hatred,
and perfect fearlessness of the human race. In
spite of all this, however, its skeleton makes a
far nearer approach to the human skeleton than
that of any known animal living or extinct.
The most essential difference is in the brain-
capacity of the skull, for in all other respects
the resemblance is so close as to amount to
identity. Thus, the absolute height, the number
of pairs of ribs, the number of vertebrae of the
back, the form of the bones of the extremities
(which are only relatively disproportionate),
their dentition (the canine teeth only being
greatly elongated in the male) all these
correspond almost exactly. Certainly this near
approximation is not flattering, unless we regard
it as showing how completely our animal
structure is consistent with the most hateful animal
development that can be conceived, and how
entirely we are redeemed from being devils by
that breathing into our nostrils the breath of
intellectual existence and capacity by which
man became a living soul.

Perhaps in all creation no greater miracle can
be conceived than that crowning work which,
selecting an animal the most unsightly, the
fiercest, the most untamable, and the most