[Illustration: THE GORILLA.]
{181} _Satyrus adrotes_, Meyer, Arch. f. Naturg., p. 182 (1856).
_Simia gorilla_, Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 8 (1876).
_Gorilla mayema_, Alix et Bouv. C. R., lxxxv., p. 58 (1878).
(_Plate XL._)
CHARACTERS.--The face of this massive and most ponderous of all the Apes is
naked and black, very wide and elongated. The large head has a ridge of
hair along the central crest, and its lower jaw is very wide and far
extended backward. The nose is long and high, and broad and flat at its
extremity, and is also grooved longitudinally. The muzzle is broad, the
mouth wide; the upper lip short, and the lower mobile and protrudable. The
eyes are large; the ears naked and black, with the posterior upper angle
pointed, and the lower margin produced into a rudimentary pendulous lobule.
The cranial region is comparatively small. The supra-orbital ridges, in
which the eye-brows are set, form, from their prominence, a marked feature
of the face. They overhang the eyes, causing them to appear very much sunk
in the skull. The neck is short, the chest and shoulders wide, thickly
haired and suggestive of great strength.
The arms are much longer than the fore-arms, and the feet, which have no
in-step, exceed the hands in length, and are much broader than in other
genera of the _Simiidæ_. The heel, which in the Orangs is small, is in the
Gorilla strongly developed, on which account it can easily stand erect. Its
opposable great-toe is large and flattened, and has a wide nail; while the
lower joints of the second, third, and fourth toes--which are also short
and thick--are united by a web. The arms, on which the hair converges on
both sides of the joint towards the elbow, are so long as to reach down to
the middle {182}of the leg when the Gorilla stands erect. The thumb is
short and thick, and is tipped with a broad nail. The hand is broad,
thickly haired on the back, and wrinkled from the wrist to the fingers. The
fur of the Gorilla consists of long, thick, straight, or stiffly curved
bristles, beneath which is a shorter curled woolly hair, or under-fur.
The skull of the adult male has very protruding jaws, and enormous
supra-orbital ridges. The cheek-bones are broad; the temporal muscles meet
along the top of the cranium, and have enormous bony crests for their
attachment. The same is the case on the back of the head for the powerful
neck-muscles. The true form of the skull is obscured by these great ridges
and by the extent to which the face protrudes. The brain-case is better
shaped internally than appears externally. The orbits have the same form as
in Man.
The canine teeth are enormously developed. The upper molars are
four-cusped, and have the oblique ridge, already often referred to, from
the front inner to the hind outer cusp, the posterior of the three being
much larger than the other two, a character distinguishing its jaw from
that of Man and the Chimpanzees. The anterior lower molars have five cusps,
three on the outer side and two on the inner, as in Man.
The lower jaw has no true chin, and its symphysis is very long and quite
different from what is seen in the human symphysis. The opening for the
passage of the spinal cord is situated in the posterior third of the base
of the skull, and not, as in Man, nearly in the centre.
The vertebræ of the neck, back, and loins number the same--seventeen--as in
Man; but there are thirteen parts of ribs instead of twelve. The
neck-vertebræ have long spines which contribute to the thickness of the
neck. The curvature, characteristic of {183}Man, in the lumbar region of
the vertebral column of the young Gorilla, is more developed than in the
Chimpanzee, and in both are earlier developed than in Man. (_Symington._)
The wrist (_carpus_) contains but eight bones, as there is no central (_os
centrale_) bone, a character in which it agrees with Man and the
Chimpanzee, but differs from the Orang.
The volume of the brain in the largest Gorilla rarely exceeds 34½ cubic
inches, which is only half the capacity of the human skull. It may be
safely said that an average European child, of four years old, has a brain
twice as large as that of an adult Gorilla. The weight of a healthy human
brain never falls below 31 ounces; that of the largest Gorilla has probably
never reached 21. (_Huxley._)
In the brain of the Gorilla the cerebellum can be seen between the deep
longitudinal fissure which separates the two halves of the cerebrum. It
agrees in this with the Orang and _Anthropopithecus calvus_--the latter
exhibiting even a greater divergence of the cerebral lobes.
The young male Gorilla differs much from the adult; its central cranial
crest is less prominent than the occipital ridge for the neck muscles.
The female is much smaller than the male, but the cheeks are relatively
broader; the cranial crests and ridges are less strongly marked, and the
canines shorter and less powerful. Her breasts are long and pointed, not
globular.
The height of the adult male Gorilla is over six feet, but the female
rarely exceeds four feet six inches.
The general colour of the Gorilla is black or blackish; the whole skin of
the face is glossy, set with a few hairs, and deep black; the crown
reddish-brown, sometimes of a dark brown, the hairs being dun-coloured at
the root, grey in the middle, {184}and dark brown at the tip; on the sides
of the face the hair is dark brown or black, grey at the root; on the neck
and shoulders the hair is grey at the root, and lighter towards the point.
The back, the region of the humerus, and the thighs are brownish, the hair
being pale grey at the root, blackish-brown further up, and dark grey at
the termination; the fore-arms, the hands, ankles, and feet, dark brown or
black; round the posterior is a circle of white hair in some, in others of
brownish-yellow. Old individuals become grey or grizzled.
DISTRIBUTION.--Western Equatorial Africa, between the Cameroons and the
Congo. This region presents a variety of hill and dale; the uplands are
clothed with forest, and the dales are covered with grass and low bush,
with abundance of fruit-yielding trees.
HABITS.--This extraordinary animal, round which have gathered so many
myths, derived mostly from the inexact and magnified tales of the natives,
still further exaggerated by careless or imaginative visitors to the West
Coast of Africa, was first brought to the knowledge of science by Dr.
Thomas Savage, an American Medical Missionary, in 1847. From that time
downwards numerous preserved specimens of the animal have been received in
excellent condition, so that its anatomy is very fully known. In 1860 the
first living individual reached Europe, and lived for some months in
Wombwell's Menagerie. Since that date both English and continental
menageries have had specimens in captivity. What we know of the habits of
the Gorilla is greatly based on observations made on these captive animals.
Abundant statements to the contrary notwithstanding, very few persons,
competent to give an intelligent account of their habits, have ever seen
the Gorilla alive in its native state. {185}Even now, for our best
accounts, we are indebted to Dr. Savage, who obtained most of his
information from the natives, whose language and character he understood so
thoroughly that he was able to extract from them, by carefully sifting
their statements, most accurate information free from exaggeration and
conjecture.
The Gorillas live in small companies, or rather families, consisting of
their young of different ages, along with the father and mother. Like the
Orang, the Gorilla is said to build a sort of platform-nest or shelter to
pass the night in, of sticks or twigs laid crosswise on the branch of a
strong tree, and within about twenty feet from the ground. The male sits,
it is said, on guard below, the female and her family occupying the
platform above. "My informants," says Savage, "all agree in the assertion
that but one adult male is seen in a band." One gets the mastery by killing
or driving out the other males.
Professor Hartmann writes: "The Gorillas roam [during the daytime only]
through the tracts of the forest, which surround their temporary
sleeping-places, in order to seek for food. In walking they place the back
of their closed fingers on the ground, or, more rarely, support themselves
on the flat palm, while the flat soles of their feet are also in contact
with the ground. Their gait is shuffling; the motion of the body, which is
never upright as in Man, but bent forward, is somewhat rolling, or from
side to side. The arms being longer than those of the Chimpanzee, it does
not stoop so much in walking; like that animal it makes progression by
thrusting its arms forward, resting its hands on the ground, and then
giving its body a half-jumping, half-swinging motion between them. In this
act, it is said not to flex the fingers to rest on its knuckles, like the
Chimpanzee, but to extend them, making a fulcrum {186}of the hand. When it
assumes the walking posture, to which it is said to be much inclined, it
balances its huge body by flexing its arms upward."
The Gorilla has the power of moving the scalp freely forward and
backward--as Man in many instances has the power of doing--and, when
enraged, of corrugating his brows and erecting the hair over the central
bony crest "so as to present an indescribably ferocious aspect." He is
capable of emitting a "terrific yell that resounds far and wide through the
forest"; and when shot his cry is like that of a human being in sudden and
acute distress. The Gorilla is very ferocious and never runs away, as the
Chimpanzee does; he advances to attack his enemies, but according to some
observers, however, only when molested, rushing forward in a stooping
attitude, then rising to his feet to strike. He is also credited with
fighting with his teeth, as well as his hands, biting his antagonist, as
the Orangs and the Chimpanzees do. He exhibits great intelligence, though
less, perhaps, than the Chimpanzee.
The females prove affectionate mothers, bravely protecting their young at
the cost of their own lives. "In a recent case," writes Dr. Savage, "the
mother, when discovered, remained upon the tree with her offspring,
watching intently the movements of the hunter. As he took aim, she motioned
with her hand, precisely in the manner of a human being, to have him desist
and go away. When the wound has not proved instantly fatal, they have been
known to stop the flow of blood by pressing with the hand upon the part,
and when this did not succeed to apply leaves and grass."
The food of the Gorilla consists of all sorts of forest and cultivated
produce; but the top of the fruiting stem of the oil-palm (_Elais
guineensis_), the Papaia (_Carica_), and plantains {187}appear to be the
fruits he most appreciates. Its dexterity in captivity in eating from
utensils of civilised life is particularly remarkable, as Dr. Falkenstein
records of a Gorilla he had alive for a considerable period. "He took up
every cup or glass with instinctive care, clasped the vessel with both
hands, and set it down again so softly and carefully that I cannot remember
his breaking a single article.... He drank by suction, stooping over the
vessel without even putting his hands into it or upsetting it, and in the
case of smaller vessels he carried them to his mouth.... When he was
anxious to obtain anything, no child could have expressed its wishes in a
more urgent and caressing manner." When he was refused anything he had
recourse to cunning, and looked anxiously to see if he was watched, and it
was "impossible not to recognise a deliberate plan and careful
calculation." When he had done what he had been forbidden or prevented from
doing, "his whole behaviour made it clear that he was conscious of
transgressing." The Gorilla is said by Dr. Savage to be very filthy in its
habits, but Dr. Falkenstein's observations disagree with this statement. On
this point the latter says "his cleanliness was remarkable."
The Gorilla generally adopts a squatting position, with its arms folded
across its breast. When asleep he lies stretched out at full length on his
back or side, with one arm under his head.
The Gorilla is very delicate, and rarely lives long in captivity, even in
his own land.