Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-08-12
HUNTING THE GORILLA.

Many Unsuccessful Attempts TO Pro-
cure Brain of the Giant Anthro-
pOid.
[From the Philadelphia Record.l
The story of a long but fruitless hunt
for the brain of gorilla is told in letter
recently received in thir city by Dr. Thorn
as G. Morton. Eight or nine years ago
DR.. Morton asked his friend, the Rev. R.
II. Nassau, who was going to the Gaboon
and Corisco mission, on the west African
coast, to try and secure for him a gorilla
brain for scientific examination. The
chase proved hopeless, however, as is told
in Mr.. Nassau's letter He arrived in Ga
boon in December. 1881, bnt there ap-
to be no gorillas in-the region about, and
he went seventy miles, to Kangwe. The
following July after hunting began sIr.
Nassau says:
Everybody in the village visited was
sure 1 would not be in the village four
days without succeeding. They told won-
derful stories of the numbers and audaci-
ty of the gorillas Not two days passed
but what somebody saw them in the gar
dens. As the garden work is done princi-
pally by women, it was they Who most
frequently saw them, sometimes actually
meeting them in the path and being pur-
sued by males.
From all their accounts the gorilla is
full of the acts and the tricks of the mon
key tribe-quick to read faces. The wo-
men being unarmed and afraid, the ami
mails We're more daring to them than to
men. But they all said We white people
would have no chance of getting so near:
that the animals would detect any strange
odor and fear our white faces They
hoped we would kill many, for their gar
dens Were devastated by the gorillas, pigs,
oxen and elephants. Most of the men
said that though they often saw these ami
mails, they We're afraid to shoot with their
fiintlocks; that often uncertainty flashed
in the pan for whose slug shots We're not
Immediately fatal, and that then they We're
at the mercy of the wounded beasts.
They warned us that II We met with a
male who dared face us not to fire till only
few yards distant, and even then not to
aim at the head, for they had the art-be-
ing acquainted with guns, and all having
informed each other $50 the natives be-
ieved)-of ducking their heads down at
the click of the trigger. We were to aim
at the abdomen, which, from its size.
could not fail to be injured, and the head
and chest would probably be pierced by
the animal having ducked his head down
to dodge shot aimed, as it supposed..-ai
its head
On Thursday, Jply-ds, we all went,
soilre men and eight dogs, in the
boat to a large island shortly after sun
rise. My own crew of six Were afraid,
and left them in the boat, and Ogula de-
scribed the lay of the land so that they
were to follow around to another part
where We would probably emerge The
rest of us entered the thicket, very dense.
1t grows up so wherever there are aban-
doned plantations. The original forest is
easily threaded, for the dense foliage of
the tall trees kills out by its shade the un-
derbrush. But the gorillas are looked for
mostly in the plantations, old and new.
But after four hours of search nothing
was heard or even seen except the tracks
of wild pigs.
In the afternoon 0keyde (whose planta-
ton was on another part of the island we
had been at came in frantic haste, saying
a gorilla was just then seen by his wife
We went. Sure enough there were pieces
of sugar cane the beast had chewed and
spat from his mouth, still wet with spittle,
and the broken branches of cassava
marked his exit from the garden. We di-
vided into three companies-to the right
and left and center. l was in the center,
Nj. Gacon went with Ogula to the right
Ogula was the only one who saw the goril-
la "a female), but it disappeared before he
could draw on it.
This stimulated our plans that night for
the next days work. On Friday, July 10,
NJ. Gacon started in a canoe with three
later in the boat with my crew and four
men. We went in the general region of
the previous afternoon. There We're fire.
quent and fresh signs.
The thicket vas impossible to be passed
by a human being in any other than the
noisy way of cutting with long knives we
carried, or by crawling on our bellies un-
der the mass of vines, bushes, and, worst
of all, grass growing many feet in length,
edges as sharp as knives. The density of
this growth above killed out the leaves
lower down, and the thicket was tunneled
with many passages, intersecting and
opening out into spaces of square rod or
two, where might be a clump of trees, and
where the animals had their sleeping places
on the lower branches. You perceive that
even if gorilla was heard or sighted in a
thicket while we were crawling ON our bel
hes it could get away before we could
snatch our gun into position, and If the
animal should only be wounded we would
be in a very ugly place.
The trail became so hot we We're sure the
animal was near. We divided, NJ. Gacon
going with 0gula to one side, / snd osam-
wamami to the other. Suddenly the dog
Hector barked sharply, and shortly after
the screams of n baby gorilla were heard.
The voice did not seem to be more than
forty or fifty feet from us We could see
nothing The barking became more saw
age, the screams more agonized, and as we
tore our way through the thicket there
were added the angry howls of a parent
gorilla. Everybody took his own way.
losing sight of each other, following the
sounds along our several radii to that
fierce center. But the bark ceased with Il
yelp; the screams and howls rapidly rece-
ded faster than we could follow. !
emerged into a small open glade where
stood Ogula, NJ. Gacon and Hector.
The dog had come upon a mother and
child at the foot of tree in hollow
| (which was still warm-) The mother had
| fed, but had returned at the scrsam of the
child, which the dog had seized. 1t was
| Just at that moment NJ. Gacon and 0gula
saw them The mother slapped the dog
with her hand, and the dog had dropped
the child with yelp of pain. Ogula had
A1lowed the precious moment to pass fear
ing TO XIII MS DOG with tne siugs OF MS
musket NJ Gacon was in his rear and
emerged on the spot just as her child dis
| appeared He had not moments tipe to
get his rifle into position.
On our way back to the boat ve came
into. large glade, where evidently there
must have slept that very night not less
| than twenty animals. 1t was exasperatine
that we had been only few hundred yards
from that spot the afternoon before and
that very morning.
On Saturday, July 20, we all rose al
three a. M, and, volunteers and all, went
to a new place, where on the previous af
ternoon large gorilla had been reported
did not like the plan. wanted to go tc
yesterday mornings region. But Ogula
was over persuaded by the volunteers
Their plan was to form a line across the
long point on which the animal had beer
heard. We found nothing.
On Tuesday, July 33, Ogula and Osam
| wamami, ashamed of our i'll success, de
clared should have gorilla that day, ant
went without us, before daylight, to dis
tant place. They returned, having seen
many gorillas, some of which had take,
refuge in high tree tops beyond the rang
| of their muskets. They regretted no