treacherous of all, as the foundation, has, with
scarcely a change in the bodily framework,
produced the noblest and most intelligent being,
the lord of creation, of which we are impressively
told that he was formed " in the image
of God." What the law of development could
do, or whatever else the law of production of
species may be, seems to have terminated in the
gorilla. Intellect, a moral sense, and a soul
being superadded, the gorilla is converted into a
man, and when we compare the lowest and
most degraded men, such as the native tribes of
Western Africa or of Australia, with these
prototypes in bony framework, the distinction is
just as great, and the gulf spanned just as wide,
us if we take higher and more developed types
for comparison. The stupid weak savage will
still make a prey of the yet more stupid but
enormously more powerful gorilla, for the one
uses reason, and the other has only his instincts.
The chimpanzee already known to naturalists
did not fall much under the observation of Mr.
du Chaillu. Though untamable when fully
grown, it is not fierce like the gorilla, and the
young is easily tamed. This animal evades man
whenever it can, and even the young can hardly
be caught alive when they have once left the
mother. The young chimpanzees are yellow or
white, like the gorilla, but this colour changes
to intense blackness with age. They are sup-
posed to be very numerous, but they live in
the dense woods.
The bald troglodyte, also called by Mr. du
Chaillu, its first describer, nshiego mbouve —a
name which we commend to the reader's
consideration, but shall decline again to write—
differs from the gorilla in being smaller, milder,
and much less strong, and in the habit of building
for itself in the trees a kind of large umbrella-
shaped dome or roof of branches, under which
in rainy weather the animal sits in comfort
when its less intelligent companions of the
forest are suffering from the tropical downpour.
Great ingenuity is described as being
shown in the construction and tying together of
these roofs, indicating intellectual powers far
above those of the gorilla; but all the external
peculiarities depart more widely than in that
animal from the human type. Thus the arms
are longer, the feet more like hands, the nose
flatter, the mouth wider, the ears larger, the
eyes more sunk, and the face more like that of
a monkey. In point of height the present ranks
among the largest of the apes, an old male of
the bald troglodyte measuring four feet four
inches, and thus equalling in size an ordinary
female of the gorillas. The male of both is
very much larger than the female.
The distinctive mark of this species is its
bald head. The rest of the animal is covered
with black hair over a black skin. It appears to
be common enough, but they are difficult of
approach . A young male that was caught was easily
tamed, and lived for five months in captivity.
The koolo-kamba is an ape whose singular
cry distinguishes it from its companion apes of
the forest. In size it is next to the gorilla, but its
forehead is much higher, the eyes wider apart, and
the head altogether very much more human. The
arms are long and very muscular, and the body
is hairy, but the whole animal is far less unsightly
and monstrous than the gorilla, and the extremities
also are better proportioned. It seems to
live much on trees, feeding entirely on vegetable
matter.
Thus it appears that in a small tract of the
most unhealthy part of the coast of Africa, not
indeed uninhabited by man, but containing only
such tribes as have the smallest intellectual
development, and are least civilised, there are in the
thick forest no less than three newly discovered
species, in addition to one already known, of that
curious family of large apes which approach
nearest in size and form to ourselves. All of
them are capable of walking upright on their
hinder extremities, although these are more like
hands than feet. All range from four to six feet
in height when full-grown; they are all very
powerful, and all have bodies very large in
proportion to their height. All of them are quite
black in the adult state and are covered more
or less with hair, and all are strict vegetable
feeders. None of them have tails. The canine
teeth are very prominent in some of the species,
but the great strength lies in the arms, the jaws,
and the body. The voice is little known, except
by the fierce roar of the gorilla, and the
monotonous cry of the kooloo, but it has not in any
case been recognised as articulate. These apes,
with serpents and crocodiles, and a small
sprinkling of elephants, hippopotami, leopards,
and some large deer of various kinds, seem to
be the natural inhabitants of the country.
There are also insects in abundance, among
which the ant holds the first rank.
And if, as we suppose, the earth is peopled
with a view to ensure the greatest amount of
good for all created beings, it is evident that in
such a country these animals are the only ones
adapted to the circumstances of existence. The
men of such climates are of necessity low in the
scale of creation, and were it not that they or
their children would improve if removed to a
better climate, they might take rank with the
gorilla and the chimpanzee. It will probably
be long before another traveller will be found to
venture in Mr. du Chaillu's footsteps, and give us
fresh details of the singular apes he discovered,
and thus it is well to realise to ourselves as far
as possible these results of his late expeditions.
Now ready, price 5s. 6d., bound in cloth,
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