"
Thus I come to the conclusion that the Nchigo Mpolo is a vulgar
nest-building ape. The bushmen and the villagers all assured me
that neither the common chimpanzee, nor the gorilla proper
(Troglodytes gorilla), "make 'im house." On the other hand, Mr.
W. Winwood Reade, writing to "The Athenaeum" from Loanda (Sept. 7,
1862), asserts,--"When the female is pregnant he (the gorilla)
builds a nest (as do also the Kulu-Kamba and the chimpanzee),
where she is delivered, and which is then abandoned." And he thus
confirms what was told to Dr. Thomas Savage (1847): "In the wild
state their (i.e. the gorillas') habits are in general like those
of the Troglodytes niger, building their nests loosely in trees."
Chapter III.
Geography of the Gaboon.
Before going further afield I may be allowed a few observations,
topographical and ethnological, about this highly interesting
section of the West African coast.
The Gaboon country, to retain the now familiar term, although no
one knows much about its derivation, is placed, by old travellers
in "South Guinea," the tract lying along the Ethiopic, or South
Atlantic Ocean, limited by the Camarones Mountain-block in north
latitude 4deg.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67