Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language

by R. L. Garner

In the order of nature the gorilla occupies the second place below man. His habitat is the lowlands of tropical West Africa, and it is confined to very narrow limits. The vague lines which bound his realm cannot be defined with absolute precision, but those generally given in books that treat of him are not correct. If he ever occupied any part of the coast north of the equator, he has long since become extinct in that part; but there is nothing to show that he ever did exist there. So far as I have been able to trace the lines that define the extent of his native haunts, they appear to confine him to the low delta country lying between the equator and the Loango valley along the coast, and reaching eastward to the interior—an average distance of less than one hundred miles. The eastern boundary is very irregular. The extreme limit on the north side is about the Gaboon River, eastward to the foothills of the Crystal Mountains; thence southward to the Ogowé River to the vicinity of the mouth of the Nguni; thence up that river twenty or thirty miles; thence by a zigzag line along the western base of the dividing lands between the Congo basin and the Atlantic watershed, to the head-waters of the Chi Loango River, and with that valley to the coast. Beyond these lines I have found no reliable trace of him, and along this boundary only now and then is he found, except along the coast.

I have seen two adult skulls and two infant skulls of the gorilla that were brought by Mr. Wm. S. Cherry from the Kisanga valley, which lies on the north side of the middle Congo, into which the Kisanga River flows. The skulls are the only evidence I have found of this ape existing so far eastward; but they were said to have come from that part of the valley lying directly under the equator. Mr. Cherry himself did not collect them. He secured them from natives, and he does not claim to have seen any of those apes alive.

There appear to be three centers of gorilla population. The first is in the basin of Izanga Lake; the second is on the south side of the basin of Lake Nkami; and the third is in the basin of the lake east of Sette Kama and west of the Nkami River. The gorilla is rarely, if ever, found in high or hilly districts. He appears to be restricted to the hummock lands, which are elevated only a few feet above tide-level. This is all the more singular from the fact that the ape appears to have a morbid dislike for water, and it is doubtful whether or not he can swim. It is true that he has one peculiar characteristic that belongs to aquatic animals. He has a kind of web between the digits; but its purpose cannot be to aid in swimming. I have been told that the gorilla can swim, and the statement may be true; but I have never observed anything in his habits to confirm this, and I have noted many facts that controvert it.

I know of no valid reason why he should be confined to the limits mentioned, unless it be on account of climatic conditions which are peculiar to this district. South of it the climate along the coast is much cooler. The country east of it is hilly and comparatively barren. North of the equator is a land of almost perpetual rain. Within this district dry and rainy seasons are more equally divided and more uniform in temperature.

The gorilla appears to be an indigenous product which does not bear transplanting. He thrives only in a low, hot, and humid region, infested by malaria, miasma, and fevers. It is doubtful if he can long survive in a pure atmosphere. The only specimen that I have ever heard of north of the equator was one on the south side of the Komo River, which is the north branch of the Gaboon. The point at which I heard of his being was within a few miles of the equator. I also heard of five having been seen a few miles southwest from Njole, which is located on the equator on the north bank of the Ogowé, a little way east of the Nguni. They were said to be the first and only ones ever seen in that region within the memory of man. As to their being found between Gaboon and Cameroon, I find no trace along the coast of one ever having been seen in that part.

Certain writers have mentioned the fact that, in 1851 and 1852, gorillas came in great numbers from the interior to the coast. The fact is that then the gorilla was practically unknown to science. He had been reported by Ford, Savage, and others, but prior to that time there are no data to show whether or not they were more numerous in the years mentioned. There had never been a specimen brought to civilization. It was about that time that Dr. Ford sent a skeleton to America, and one had been previously sent to England. Some years earlier Dr. Savage had announced the existence of such a creature and had sent sketches of a skull, but it was more than ten years after the period in question that Paul du Chaillu brought out the first skins of gorillas and gave detailed accounts of their character, habits, and geographical distribution. From these facts it is not rash to conclude that the migrations of 1851 and 1852 are mere matters of fancy.

Gorillas are found in the Ogowé delta, about one degree south latitude; but not one has ever been known to come from the Crystal Mountains. At the time above mentioned neither traders nor missionaries had ascended the Gaboon River above Parrot Island (which is less than twenty miles from the mouth), except to make a flying trip by canoe. Nothing was known of those parts except what was learned from the natives, and that was very little. During my first voyage I went up the river as far as Nenge Nenge, about seventy-five miles from the coast. At that place I spent two days with a white trader, who had been stationed there for a year. I was assured by him that there were no gorillas in that section. The natives report that they have been found in the lowlands south of there, in the direction of the Ogowé basin; but their reports are conflicting, and none of them, so far as I could learn, claims that they are found north of there, nor in the mountains eastward. I admit that they may have been found in, and may yet inhabit, the strip of land between the Gaboon and the Ogowé; but I repeat that there is no tangible proof that they were ever found north of the Gaboon. With due respect to Sir Richard Owen and other writers who have never been in that country, I insist that they are mistaken. It is true that one of the tribes living north of the Gaboon has a name for this animal; but it does not follow that the ape lives in that country. The Orungu tribe has a name for lion, but there is not such a beast within two hundred miles of their country. Not one of that tribe ever saw a lion.

A number of specimens of gorillas have been secured at Gaboon, but they have been brought there from far away. It is the chief town of the colony, and there are more white men there than elsewhere to buy them. It is not possible for a stranger to ascertain what part of the country a specimen is brought from. The native hunter will not tell the truth, lest some one else should find the game and thus deprive him of its capture and sale. I saw a specimen at Cameroon, and was told it had been captured in that valley, fifty miles from the coast; but I hunted up its history and found with absolute certainty that it was captured near Mayumba, two hundred miles south of Gaboon.

Even with the greatest care in hunting up the history of a specimen, one may fail, and often does fail, in tracing it to its true source; but every one, so far, that I have followed up has been brought from somewhere within the limits I have laid down. Contrary to the statement of some authorities that these apes “have never been seen on the coast since 1852,” I assert that by far the greatest number of them are found near the coast. I do not mean to say that they sit on the sand along the beach, or bathe in the surf, but they live in the jungle of the low coast belt. Along the lower Congo the gorilla is known only by name, and scores of the natives do not know even that. The nearest point to that river that I have been able to locate the gorilla as a native is in the territory about sixty or seventy miles northwest of Stanley Pool.

I am much indebted to the late Carl Steckelman, who was an old resident of the coast, a good explorer, a careful observer, and an extensive traveler. He was drowned at Mayumba in my presence in October, 1895. I knew him well and secured from him much information concerning the gorilla. On a map he traced out for me what he believed to be the south and southeast limits of the gorilla’s habitat. Not thirty minutes before the accident in which he lost his life I had closed arrangements with him to make an expedition from Mayumba to the Congo, near Stanley Pool, by one route and return by another, but his death prevented the fulfillment of this plan.