The Gorilla is a
poor devil ape, not a "hellish dream-creature, half man, half
beast." He is not king of the African forest; he fears the Njego
or leopard and, as lions will not live in these wet, wooded, and
gameless lands, he can hardly have expelled King Leo. He does not
choose the "darkest, gloomiest forests," but prefers the thin
woods, where he finds wild fruits for himself and family. His
tremendous roar does not shake the jungle: it is a hollow apish
cry, a loudish huhh! huhh! huhh! explosive like the puff of a
steam-engine, which, in rage becomes a sharp and snappish bark --
any hunter can imitate it. Doubtless, in some exceptional cases,
when an aged mixture of Lablache and Dan Lambert delivers his
voce di petto, the voice may be heard for some distance in the
still African shades, but it will hardly compare with the howling
monkeys of the Brazil, which make the forest hideous. The eye is
not a "light grey" but the brown common to all the tribe. The
Gorilla cannot stand straight upon his rear quarter when
attacking or otherwise engaged without holding on to a trunk: he
does not "run on his hind legs;" he is essentially a tree ape, as
every stuffed specimen will prove.
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