, 1889-05-08
Il GORILLA.
A Fighter FROM Way Back. and n Tough
Customer to Handle

ea
Customer to Handle
The gorilla is the prize fighter of
Africa" said Carl Steckelmann, who has
personal knowledge of the Dark Cont
nent He had been speaking of a Loop
ard skin on exhibitionin his widow, and
had been telling of the danger encoun-
tered in fighting with the original owner
of the skin.
Contests with all wild animals pale
In comparison with that In which one
must engage in meeting the gorilla y he
said. THE gorilla Is found in only a
comparatively small portion of western
Africa He'lurks in the woods along the
coasts for several hundred miles north
of the mouth of the Congo. l nave
never seen a gorilla in the open country,
and, by the way, l think that the fact
that he stays In the woods accounts for
the fact that he is almost a biped instead
of a quadruped. You see the gorilla in
passing through the forests reaches out
with his long arms, and, Selling the
branches of the trees, rises on his hind
legs and walks on them, supporting him
self with his hold on the branches. Habit
has thus almost made an upright Great
ure of him.
"The gorilla is as brave as brave can
be. The male gorilla does all the fight
ing for the family. If you approach a
pair of gorillas the female will run
screaming through the woods or will
climb the highest tree, uttering all the
while cries not unlike a woman in great
fright. But the male gorilla will come
straight at you. He does not know what
fear is. He will fight any number of
men,"
Glow do you fight them?'
with pistols. 1t is very unsafe to
trust to a gun or to a poor weapon of
any kind. The gorilla Is SO fierce and
powerful that you nave but one chance
at him at the best. The woods where he
Is found are SO thick that it is impossible
to see him accurately at any distance. If
you fire at him as he comes at you down
the tree n limb may turn the course of
the bullet Before you can fire a second
time no will be upon you. He drops
from limb to limb and comes at n rapid,
swinging pace. The safest way is to
hold your fire until he is at arms length
and then fire steadily into him with a
pistol.
THE gorilla is easily killed. An or
binary pistol shot will have about the
Same effect upon him as it has upon n
man. The hunters danger is in not
making the shot tell. Once l was pass
ing through the forest with a bodyguard
of natives. The natives are furnished by
the Dutch traders with n miserable gun,
the barrel of which Is made of gas pipe.
The natives had learned to DO suspicious
of their guns. When they fire at any
thing they point in the general direction,
pull the trigger and fling the gun at the
object. They throw tho gun because
they are afraid 1t will explode in their
hands, as 1t very frequently does. Well,
we came upon n gorilla. A native saw
him dropping from a tree coming at us.
Aiming at the descending form he fired
and missed. He had not turned before the
grim monster was upon him. Standing
and throwing his arms around the ne
gro's neck the gorilla seized his throat in
hismanlike jawsand was crushing the life
out of him when We came up and fired a
pistol ball into him at close range. But
the rounds inflicted were mortal and
the native died in great agony"
"Arc the gorillas numerous in the
strip of country where they are found2"
"Thoy are scarce. In making n trip
once l saw two In n day, but that was
unusual. They are the fercest and brav-
est of animals. The male gorilla in going
into baltic sounds q fearful warning by
beating its breast and giving forth sounds
that make the dense forest resound. He
is a dangerous antagonist, and you are
all the time reminded by his appearance
that you are contrasting with a reature
that has a mans faculties and p
ancc, a giants strength and a monkeys
agility. "-Indianapolis News.