The National tribune., 1908-04-30

to the first joint. The legs are shorter
in proportion than mans, have fairly
developed calves, and the feet, like the
hands, are broad and blunt, the toes
being very large and short and the
great toe set out at an angle like a
thumb. and the whole foot is nearly
straight The body is covered in most
parts with long. coarse hair. blackish
below. but whitish at the tips, giving a
brownish-gray aspect; but individuals
vary greatly in color, and all grow
grizzled with age. This hair becomes
very long on the shoulders, back and
thighs, and on the top of the head and
nape is stiff and erectile, rising like a
dogs hackles when the gorilla is angry.
There is distinct beard or ruff under
lie chin. Beneath the outer coarse
hairs grows a coat of short, curly hairs,
approximating to a wool. The whole
skin of the face is of deep-black color,
of a glossy appearance and sparsely
sprinkled with coarse hairs. The ears
are comparatively small, with their
hinder border sharply angulated in the
Anthropoid Apes.
The genus of anthropoid apes-that
is apes which resemble man-includes
the gorilla, chimpanzee. orang-outang,
gibbon and others, and form class
widely distinct from the dog-like apes
(cynomorpha) of the Old World and
also from the fiat-nosed monkeys of the
New World While these families of
monkeys differ very greatly from one
another, yet they are all much more
nearly alike than the monkey family is
to the human families. This difference
is discoverable in the very youngest
specimens of the families The orang-
outang has a brain most like mans, the
chimpanZee skull is most like mans,
the gorilla has the most human feet
and hands, and the gibbon the most
similar chest. There hardly seems any
where the possibility of discovering any
missing link" since fossil studies in
dicate positively that it never existed.
The Chimpanzee.
The chimpanZee, which has been Of
ten mistaken for the gorilla, is a far
different animal, differing more from
the gorilla than the most widely sep
arated human families from each 9TH
er, such as the negrOS and Cinnamon
from the whites. The chimpanZee is
rarely ever over five feet in hight, and
does not often walk upright. Usually
it walks bent over, supporting itself on
it's long forearms and knuckles. The
chimpanZeeS are much more numerous
and extend over a far greater area than
the gorillas, but, like them, they are
Strictly IOTeSI-OWelilnS animals, prefer
ring the densesr jungles and the tallest
trees. They are so numerous in places
as to be a scourge from their depreda-
tions on the crops, when the natives
organize regular hunts. Tho timid at
the sight of man, DIR. Livingston
shows that chimpanzee is good
match for a leopard The chimpanzee
is the most human in its characteristics
of any of the monkeys, and displays
more intelligence. 1t can be readily
trained, and those taken in captivity
have a better chance of surviving pull
monary diseases than the gorilla. The
negros have a great fund of folklore
about the chimpanzee, which they re-
gard as in some ways relative, and
they use their skulls for fetiches. AS
to its human characteristics, Prof.
Wright says:
1.-The chimpanzee appears to indulge
the instinct of play, which renders 1t
such an attractive inmate of the ZOO
logical garden. Savage describes how
a hollow tree may be used as a drum
to call the young ones to play, and how
the old folks sit around keeping watch
and ready to administer a rebuke if
desired. So entirely human are the
chimpanZees in their ways that the ma
tives of certain tribes believe them to be
relations which have been degraded
from higher state with their present
forest life