The Yale expositor., 1901-06-28
WONDERFUL MAMMAL
NEWLY DISCOVERED BEAST
OF THE CONGO FORESTS.
An Absolutely New Type of Existing
Acknowledging Link May Yet lie
Found In Region OF this Mountains OF
the Moon.


What Sir Harry Johnston thought
to be probably a new zebra, living
in the Congo forests. has proved TO
be a new mammal indeed, but neither
the Equus Johnstoni, which it was pro-
visionally named. nor a horse of any
kind or sort. 1t is an absolutely new
type of existing animal, so far as can
be judged from the skin and two
skulls which courteous Swedish Of
ficer, Mr.. X. Erikssen, commandant OF
the Congo State fort of M6eni, has
sent to the administrator OF British
Central Africa. Not long ago eXplor-
ers in the far southern Cordilleras OF
Patagonia found the recent remains OF
the great ground sloth, which was be-
lieved to be extinct. But this is an
even more suggestive fact, for its now
certain that an absolutely unknown
creature of large size, and probably
the only representative of a prehis-
toric race of mammals, survives in
some numbers in what is now a part Of
the British empire. The existence Of
an unknown elephant or rhinoceros, or
wild camel. in some untrodden part of
earth would be an interesting but not
an unexpected discovery When the
gorilla was once more found by Du
Chaillu, three centuries after Andrew
Battell, the sailor of Leigh, had des-
cribed those he had seen during his
captivity among the West African Por-
tuguese. curiosity and interest CEN
tered in the size and mental charac-
teristics of the giant ape, but it was
only one Of a known class, and gave
no fresh view as TO the limits of ami
NAL form on the globe today or hint
as to the actual color and shape of
creatures now vanished from our
planet. The new mammal does this.
1t is a living representative Of a lost
form. 1t may for all we know, have
habits unlike those OF any existing
creature. It's color is strange and it's
markings unlike those of the animals
of today, inverting the usual dstribu-
ton of tints. All large existing wild
animals are lighter below than above.
Nearly ALL except the zebra and tiger,
are of sober colors. This beast is
painted with CANDY hues and striped
below and not above. Every other
creature which bears true horns has
either two or four. The giraffe alone
has the rudiments of three. The new
three horn cores. The Times gives
detailed account of the extraordinary
coloring of this prehistoric beast. 1t
is as large as q wild horse, cloven-
footed and a ruminant The head is
large, the muzzle tapering, the cheeks
white, the muzzle brown. This sug-
gests the coloring OF one of the larger
African antelopes. But the whole fore
head is scarlet-red which narrows into
a thin black line down to the nostrils
a scarlet-painted mammal as large as
horse is novel enough; but this is
carried out by general mass of dark
brown, painting the ears, neck, shout
ders, belly and back. This brown is so
tinted with red Gg TO appear almost
crimson in some lights. Proceeding
with this reconstruction, we have now
a brown beast, with asses ears, q scar
let forehead and white cheeks. There
remain the headquarters (the most
conspicuous part in most Quadrupeds)
and the legs. The HEADQUARTERS. and
the hind-legs down to the hooks. are
striped with purplish black, white and
pale orange. The proportions are some
thing like those of a horse. and the
outline that Of a tapir. 1t is believed
to live upon leaves, which accounts for
its inhabiting the great forest and not
the grass plains, which, If the new
beast had been horse as was con-
jectured, it would certainly have done.
No painters fancy has ever pictured
such a beast, though the imaginary
accounts of zebras circulated by the
Jesuit Tuchard in the middle of the
gorgeous coloring. CAS- for the wild
asses" he writes, they are of all col
ors. They have a long blue stripe
that reaches from head TO tail. the
body being like that OF a horse. full
of broad streaks. all very lively. blue.
yellow, green, black and white" But
even he did not give them bright
red forehead. We have now found q
survivor of the prehistoric beasts; and
who shall say what will be the next
addition to our knowledge of the still
living races of the world, man or beast.
from this ranl1ly overgrown, sun-heat-
ed. river-pervaded land? Possibly
new and monstTous ape. The missing
link" which present explorers hope to
find in Java, may be found feeding in
the same forests as this descendant of
the sivatherium.