The New York herald., 1922-03-14
AKELEY'S GORIlLAS
shot FOR MUSEUM
Five Giant Jungle Beasts
So Timid the Killing
Wasn't Sport.
ONE SHOT BY WOMAN
Mrs. Bradley Says It's Safer
in African Wilds Than
on Broadway.
PARTY HERE ON BALTIC
Explored Belgian Congo
Bring Back Motion Pic
lures Of Animal Life.
PARTY HERE ON BALTIC

LIT. Carl -. AKeiey, VINO with cam
era and rifle hunts the wild creatures
of equatorial Africa, arrived yester-
day by the White Star liner Baltic,
jubilant over his success in bagging
five gorillas for the American Museum
of Natural History. The report that
DR.. Akeley and his party had captured
the giant Simians alive was dissipated.
He shot four and Mrs. Herbert L.
Bradley of Chicago brought down one.
The skins of the gorillas are on
their way to New York with the para
phernalia of the hunters aboard a
freighter. The biggest of the gorilla
quintet was feet inches tall,
weighed $50 pounds and measured
sixty inches around the chest.
Resides being a hunter and explorer
DR.. Akeley is taxidermist and sculptor
and he believes that wncn he recreates
In realistic form the five manlike apes
and groups them in the new African
Hall OF the Museum of Natural History
they win help to give a vivid impression
of exactly what real animal life Is in
the jungle.
Camera "ShootinE'' More Fun.
DR.. Akeley declared that the group
would be unsurpassed by that of any
other museum in the world. When he
goes back to the scene OF his recent
successful expedition, which he expects
to do this year. he will take along
painter to get "the detail of the most
beautiful African forest painting in ex-
istence. a scene beyond description, with
volcano in eruption in the back
ground"
The jungle homes OF the girillas, DR..
Akeley said, were just west of Lake
Nyanza. Victoria. and at the farthest
east part of the Belgian Congo. He
found the great Smians rather gentle
than otherwise. There was nothing fe-
rocious about them and 1t was not sport
to shoot them.
Instead of being aggressive. as pic.
tured in some reports of the past. they
are timid. he said. 1t was much more
fun to shoot the gorillas with a NOV
ing picture camera, a special one of DR.
| Akeley's own design that can take
accurate pictures at a long distance.
The most interesting jungle movie scene
shows four big gorillas interrupted at
play watching the camera and it's oper-
ator with some suspicion. They ran into
hiding when the camera clicked. appar-
emily much frightened. and did not re-
appear.
Tamencss OF the WiIds.
The expedition of which DR.. Akeiey
was the head left New York in Au-
gust last. Its other members were
Miss Martha Miller DIR. Akeley's sec
retary: Herbert T.. Bradley lawyer OF
1 ~ n 1.11
| big game hunter and newspaper corre-
| spondent: their six-year-old daughter
! Alice and the little girls governess,
Miss Priscilla Hail.
Miss Miller was not impressed with
the ferocity of the gorillas she saw.
She said they seemed to be very tame
| creatures and that she did not believe
they would fight unless they were COR
| nered and compelled to- Also she re-
marked that it seemed almost cruel
to shoot them. The women were the
| first whites OF their sex to go into the
| gorilla land of Africa.
The women and the little girl wore
khaki shorts and trousers and puttees
and suffered no inconvenienccs due to
the heat. as the scene of their explora-
tions is in high altitude. No one
was sick even for day. Mrs. Bradley
said she would feel safer in Africa
with the little girl than she would In
Broadway lodging automobiles They
visited a pigmy tribe. the women of
which were no taller than little Alice.
The pigmies were very friendly and
inquisitive. Their chief was much
puzzled when he found that Alices
curls were not detachable.
A Future Tourist Resort.
DIR. Akeley said he believed the time
was not distant when the Kivo country
in the eastern Congo would become re-
sort for tourists. as II was very health
full and dry and not anything like so
uncomfortably hot as New York In sum-
nner. He and his party sailed from this
port to England. whence they went to
Cape Town and into the jungle. They
came back over the same route. DR.
Akeley Is bound for Council Bluffs
Iowa. to begin series of lectures, and
expects to return to this city two and
a half months hence.
Other arrivals by the Baltic were
Seward Prosser, president OF the Bank
ers Trust Company Sir william A. NJ.
Goode. Major-Gen III. Greenely. Daniel
Radcliffe. British ship owner w. II. NJ.
Sinclair. British Consul General al
Philadelphia; Mr.. and Mrs Robert n
Choate. Col. Robert T.. Leckie and Mr.
and Mrs. A. Preston Jones.