The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1867-06-12
erasps the luckless fellow with his power
fal feet, and draws him W into the tsee,
where he generally chokss hern.
A GRILLA KILLED

where he generally chokss tb ern.
A GRILLA KILLED.
Suddenly as we were ye, creepin along
In silence which made a heavy bsesth.
ing seem loud and distinct, the woods
were at once filed with the tremendou.
barking roar OF the beast. Then the un-
derbrush swayed rapidly }ns' ahead, and
presently before us stood an immense
male gorilla. He had gone through the
jungle on all fonrs. hnt when he saw our
party, he erected himself and looked us
boldly In the face Nearly ak feet high,
with An immense BODY, huge chest, and
great muscular arms. intensely black face
with fercelv glsring large, deep, erav
eyes. and a hellish expression OF face.
which seemed TO me, like some night.
mare vision, thus stood before me. the
king Of The African Forea. he was no,
afraid ofus, but stood there and beat his
breast with his huge fist ill i, resounded
like sn.immense base drum. which / found
to he hi, mode Of offering defiance. mean
time giving vent To roar after roar. fhi,
roar OF the gorilla is The most sinoular
and awful noise heard in these African
woods. II begins like a sharp bark Of
An angry dog. then glides into n deem
bass. which literally and closely resem.
b'es The roll Of distan, thunder along the
skv. So deep is it that il seems to pro,
ceed less from n mouth and throat than
from the deep chest and vast paunch.-
His ewes began to t'a.h fercer fire A we
stood on the d-fensive.and the crest Of
short hair which stands on his fore head
began To t~i'ch rapidv up and down.
whiis h's.powerfIl teeth were shown as he
sent f~,h thandetohs roar, and now
truly he reminded me Of nothing bu, some
hellish dream cresture-a king Of that
hideous order, hall man. half beat. He
advanced fow steps, then Stopped 10
utter that hidaous roar again, and heat
his chest. and finally stopped when at .
distance Of about SIX yards from us. and
here. just as he began one OF bis roar.,
heating his breast in rage, I killed him.
With sroan which had something ter.
rihlv human in it. and vet VA. full OF
hrh'ishness. he ftll forward on his fsce.-
The body shook convulsi~ely for few
=.
minutes, the limbs moved about in a
strncgling war. and then all WAS quiet
death had done his work. and I bad
leisure to examine the large body.
NJ. du chslh observed that he brought
twenty one skins OF eo,illas TO this coun
try few wears ago. and offered to sell
them for $4,000. No one accepted the
offer, and he finally sod them for much
larger sum in England. ...
or the habits Of the gorilla, and the
difficulty Of tanning it. N. du Chaillu
said:
The animal iivss IN the loneHest and
darkest portion Of the African Jungle
preferriiny deep ~ooded valleys and swam
py soil. II ia a restless or nomadic beas,
wandering from place to place. and scarce
ly found two day. i" the same neixhr
hood. This res,sessres. is caused ~ the
struggle it has to 6nd its fsv0rite food
For though the gorilla possesses snci
immenso canine teeth. and though hn
vast strength doubtless fl. him to captur,
and kill almost every animal which ire
qnents the forest. he is q strict vegetarian
1t does not live on trees, indeed. il
enormous weight world prevent il from
doing so. Some Of the males m Us, weipl
from 800 to 400 pounds. BY the sr
amin stion Of me stomach, OF the mao,
specimens | have had, I was enabled I,
ascertsin with tolsrsbIe certainty the ma
tore OF hs food, snd i discovered that !
bad no need to ascend trees. 1,is Tom
OF heart Of some trees, also Of a kind O
nut with very hard she'll.
, After my frs, explorations I said tba
The gorilla was not gregarious Nv las
journey has dstnobstrs,sd hat I W.
wrong, forf have seen ten Of them to
getber. bu, I found them when adulo
klnos, always one male With one female
when the male becomes very old b.
wandsrs compauionless. To such case
as with the "rogue" elephant. he is par
,ieulSrly n'oros~ and mslignsnt, ano
dangerous 10 approach. and woe to fb'
mao WHO comes suddenly Upon one o
these old ones, and tbs hunter who track
them must be on bio guard. I tount
sometimes bands Of four or fvs gorilla.
When IN bands these are very shy anc
then dificul, TO spproaeb, as their hear
ipo is ACUTE