From crown to sole he measured 4 feet 10 3/4
inches, and from finger-tip to finger-tip 6 feet 1 inch. The
girth of the head round ears and eyebrows was 1 foot 11 inches;
of the chest, 3 feet 2 inches; above the hip joints, 2 feet 4
inches; of the arms below the shoulder, 2 feet 5 inches; and of
the legs, 2 feet 5 inches. Evidently these are very handsome
proportions, considering what he was, and there was a suggestion
of ear lobe which gave his countenance a peculiarly human look.
He had not undergone the inhuman Hebrew-Abyssinian operation to
which M. du Chaillu's gorillas had been exposed, and the
proportions rendered him exceedingly remarkable.
That interesting anthropoid's career after death was one series
of misfortunes, ending with being stuffed for the British Museum.
My factotum sat up half the night skinning, but it was his first
coup d'essai. In a climate like the Gaboon, especially during the
rains, we should have turned the pelt "hairy side in," filled it
with cotton to prevent shrinking, and, after painting on arsenic,
have exposed it to the sun: better still, we should have placed
it on a scaffolding, like a defunct Congo-man, over a slow and
smoky fire, and thus the fatty matter which abounds in the
integuments would have been removed.
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