, 1861-06-19

Spccd on the light Of those who dwell
In s1arery'e Land Of voc and SIN,
And through the b1ackness Of that he'll
Let Heavens own light break in.
THE CONaRCTlNG LINK.
The Coz lila In his Native wI1ds.
The volume Of Of Adventures In Africa, lust
published in London by our countryman, Du
Challlu, among other highly interesting de-
Ecriptions Of life In Western Africa, gives some
graphic sketches Of the gorilla In his natiye
"ilds. The "What is 1t?" is q decidedly for
his first experience with the eori1la:
"Tlen the uuderbrush sWayed rapidly Just
ahead, and presently before US stood m i'm
rense male gorilla. He had gone through
the jungle on his allfours, but when he saw
our party, he erected himself and looked ns
boldly IN the lace. He stood about dozen
yards from us, and Tas sight I think shall
never forget. Nearly sir feet high {he proved
four inches shorter, 18th immense body, huge
chest, and great muscular arms, with aercefy-
glarlng large, deep, gray eyes, and q hellish ex-
preston Of face, which seemed to me like
scne nightmare ytsion-thus stood before Us
the King Of the African forest.
ard beat his breast with his huge fists till it
reaounded like an immense brass drum, which
Is their mode Of offering defiance, meantime
giving vent to roar after roar.
The roar Of the gorilla is the most singular
and awful noise heardin these African woods.
It begins with sharp bark, ike m angry
deg, then gndeR into deep baas roll, which
tant thunder along the sky, for which have
sometimes been tempted to take 1t where I
did not see the animal. So deep Is it that It
seems to proceed less from the mouth and
throat than from the deep chest and vast
pauncb.
stood motionless on the, defensive, and the
crest Of short hair which stands on his fore.
head. began to twitch rapidly up mud down,
while his powerful fangs were shown as be
again sent forth thunderous roar. And now
truly he reminded me Of nothing but some
hellish dream crcature-a being Of that hid
eous order, halfman, halfbeast, which ne
tations of the internal regions. He advanced
. few steps-then stopped to utter that hid
COTS roar agalp-Gdvanced agnin, and finally
stopped when at about distance Of six ynrds
from us. And here, just as he began another
Of bis roaFs, beating his breast In rage, ne
"With groan which hid someihIn e terri.
bly, human in it, and Jet was full Of british:
ness, he fell forward on his face. The body
shook convulslvefy. for few moraents, the
limbs moTed about In struggling way, md
then all was quiet-death bad done Its work,
It proved to be five feet eight inches high; and
the muscular Development OF the arms and
breast shoTed whsts Immense strength 1t had
Subsequently to this Du challlu saw q fe,
male gorilla sucking her infant, and the moth
er having been shot, he endeavoured to rear
the lite one but without success, as he had
{r,rhH X1FS y hat &1.$1
more doci1e than the other, aud, In fact, 1t Is
premature to conclude as yet that II the Eori1-
ID Is caught sufficiently young he Is altogether
beyond the influence of. humanity. There is
skeleton Of the Caucasian man On page $40,
who Is pointing rather contemptuously at his
gorilla companion, but It Is not SO certain that
the differences between them, as estimated BY
the superior anatomy, are not at present Z lit-
tie exaggerated. The writer just refers to these
perp1edng questions, which are now the PROV
fnce Of rival psychologists. He has one chap
ter on the anthropold apes Of Africa, and an.
Other on the bony structure Of the Eori1ln and
the cognate species, which Is accompanied by
own conceit. Afttr summing up the osseous
pecu1iarit1es upon both sides, he comes to the
conclusion that there Is great dissimilaritY
between the bony frame Of man and that Of
the gorihe, but that there is also, be Bays, "dn
oxJm likeness, which In the gorilla resembles
an exaggerated caricature Of hum.n being. !"
Moreover, to such IN extent Is It evident thas
he was impressed by the native stories, fhst he
mentions that he searched continually to as.
certain whether an intermediate race, rather
several nterme1ata races or links, betweenth
nstiVea and the gorilla might not be found As
he could get no nearer to man than the gorilla
himse1f-lhat is to say, as no intermediase rel
ChafIs human skeleton has 50 far reason for
eon,p}acency that, If his ungainly companion
is connected With him In any degree, q cousin
80 very distaut can hardly expect to acknowl.
edged at this time Of day and In the presence
OF good society.
On another occasion some natives brought
him . young gori11a alive: II cannot" says
the struggling little brute dragged into the
village. All The hardships had endured IN
At1ica we're rewarded in that moment The
little fellow was between two and three years
old and two feet aix inchea high, a gorills
gohtin, who was as fierce and stubborn as his
bis mother, and had secured the orphan by
throwing cloth over his head while he was
making hostile demonstrations. "As the
little brute, though so dIminutlye, and the
merest baby for age, Was astonishing1y strong
and By no means good tempered, they could
not lead him. He constantly rushed at them.
So they were obliged to get forknd stick,
way that hs could not escape, and
yet could be kept 1T safe distance. In
this uncomfortable way he Was brought
into the vtllage,n Though he was there 20,
cured In q hutch and every eiEort made to
tame him, he proved to be incurshly morose
that the gorilla babies are not born good, Of
that Ibis one resented the circumstances .oi
his capture. He escaped tWice-on the first
occasion getting into Da Chaillu's apartment
where he examined the fuKnIture with evident
surprise and when the negroes threw . net
and though held BY lou. nezg,roes gave as much
trouble % drunken ltiehman. II never saw,
eaya the writer, s'so furious beast In my Life
Us he was. He darted at eyETy one who came
near, bit the bamboos Of the house, glaFel al
us With venomous and s1Ieu eyes, and It
every motion shoWed temper, thoroughly
it'd any arrangement for bis comfort, bua
wikbont exhibiting any signs OF RECONCILIATION
to those Who fended him. In fact-the I'M
grateful little rutian died after few week'f
captivity, aud finally treated bis guardian q:
| the obstinate pauper treated Bundle.
Respecting the history Of tho man-monster
| It ia Observed that Han no and his Ca1thagtni
an comrades, In the course Of their pertplu!
about the coast Of Africa, found certain wtle
and hslry men and women who bore the nnmf
OF gorilla, md who were certainly monkeys o
| ecme soft; and beirg unable, on account q
ttcfr excessive violence, to retain some OF ths
women whom tae9 captured, they Killed then
and carried their skins to Carthage, where thel
we're hung mp as culiositIes In the Temple q
Juno. The presumption is TINT these mal
have been the ancestors Of the very brute
whom Du Chaniu found lording It over crez
ton In tho African forests; but the writer In
ttIposes some reasons, for concelvtng thel|
were chimpsnzses. These reasons, Il Ws hae
space. It would be possible to combat, whit
on tho other aide, the identity Of name is I
strong ground for believing that the Puni'
| nsytgators were face to face with the gorilla!
$500 years back, though the sWurthy fae,
who snecunbed to 6cipio, were no match fo
| creatures who conld have cracked tho bone
| Of scIpio like biscuit. In ftct> guppowde,
is the only protection agtnst gorills asceadap
cyIn the unascertained limits Of their tropica
+ domain, and Il ths hunter does not shoot Ii
| antagonist at once, his gun Il broken like
| reed, End bis hunting days are summariiy end
I'd. This ynlnmn contains picture Of th
catastrophe which befe1 one Of Du Chai1iu'
| party, and which Is: significant of tho power
Of this interesting monster, whose ggauti
body and excessive strength arc proved stil
more satisfactorily by the specimens now ex
hibittng 1t. the Geographical Society In Lon
don. ~, -
TT Il Is reported Chat one Of tho sla1esa