Birds were scarce, very scarce, and the silence of the woods was only broken by the booming sound of the heavy surf, as each wave broke in foaming white billows before it reached the shore. The wind blew hard, as usual at that time of the year, and whispered strangely as it passed through the trees to the country behind.
Now and then I could see the foot-prints of gorillas that had wandered like myself through the woods, but these foot-prints were several days old. I came to a place where the pine-apple plants were abundant, and where the gorillas had evidently feasted on the leaves, for thousands of them had been plucked out and only the white part eaten. Here and there a young pine-apple had been partly eaten away by these hairy men of Hanno, one or two bites taken and the fruit then thrown aside.
FOOT-PRINTS OF THE GORILLA.
I had to be very careful in walking for fear of making a noise, for the forest not being dense, gorillas could have seen me at a long distance. The tondo fruit was also abundant throughout the wood.
A GREAT GORILLA.
After I had followed the woods along the sea-shore for a while I suddenly came to a place where a large male gorilla had been: the foot-prints were of enormous size and he must have been a monstrous fellow.
This place was not further than three feet from the beach, and I could distinctly see by the foot-prints of the monster that it had been on all-fours and suddenly had raised itself to an erect posture; while the bending of a branch about eight or nine feet high, just above the marks, showed that the animal had supported himself by it. By the position of the heels I knew that the monster had been looking at the sea.
Yes, he had been looking, probably in great wonder, at the broad expanse of water before him: he had seen the waves as they came in white billows breaking themselves on the beach; as far as his deep-sunken gray eyes could reach they had seen nothing but the ocean: perhaps he had also been looking at the sun as it disappeared below the horizon.
I could but wonder what the thoughts of that great ape might have been!