" This is evidently the Njina, the only known anthropoid
that attains tall human stature; and from the rest of the
passage,[FN#23] it is clear that he has confounded the chimpanzee
with the Nchigo-mpolo.
The strip of gorilla-country visited by me was an elevated line
of clayey and sandy soil, cut by sweet-water streams, and by
mangrove-lined swamps, backed inland by thin forest. Here the
comparative absence of matted undergrowth makes the landscape
sub-European, at least, by the side of the foul tropical jungle;
it is exceptionally rich in the wild fruits required by the huge
anthropoid. The clearings also supply bananas, pine-apple leaves,
and sugar-cane, and there is an abundance of honey, in which,
like the Nchigo, the gorilla delights. The villages and the
frequent plantations which it visits to plunder limit its
reproduction near the sea, and make it exceedingly wary and keen
of eye, if not of smell. Even when roosting by night, it is
readily frightened by a footstep; and the crash caused by the
mighty bound from branch to branch makes the traveller think that
a tree has fallen.
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