Since that time gorillas have been killed by the
French chasseur.
The young Troglodyte has often been captured. The usual mode is
to fell the tree, and during the confusion to throw a cloth over
its head; the hands are then pinioned behind, and a forked stick
is fastened under the chin to prevent the child biting. I should
prefer, for trapping old as well as young, the way in which bears
are caught by the North American backwoodsman,--a hollowed log,
with some fruit, plantains for instance, floating in a quant.
suff. of sugar, well sugared and narcotized.
Concerning the temper of these little captives, there are heroic
differences of opinion. Mr. Ford records the "implacable
desperation" of a juvenile which was brought to the Mission. It
was taken very young, and kept four months, and many means were
used to tame it; but it was so incorrigible, that it bit me an
hour before it died." Yet, in face of this and other evidence,
Mr. W. Winwood Reade, writing to the "Athenaeum" (September 7,
1862), asserts that "the young gorilla in captivity is not
savage." "Joe Gorilla," M.
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