SKULLS OF GORILLAS—PROFILE VIEW
(From a Photograph in Buffalo Museum.)
In this picture the gorilla is sitting flat on the sand; his body is limp and is somewhat shorter than it was in life. Yet it can be seen that the top of his head is higher than the hip of the man who is holding him. In the foreground, on the left of the gorilla, sits the man who killed him. He is sitting on a log and is thereby a little more elevated than the gorilla. It did not occur to me to place them side by side in order to make a comparison. As he sits, the body and head of this gorilla measure nearly four feet from the base of the spinal column to the top of the head. I had no means of weighing him, but made an estimate by lifting him. I estimate that he weighed at least two hundred and forty pounds. He was not an old specimen, but comparing the skull with No. 7, in which the crests are well developed, it is found to be larger, and other things point to the conclusion that he was older than No. 7.
I am aware that one specimen does not of itself establish anything, but in this case it shows that the male gorilla does not always develop the crest. The head of this specimen was surmounted by the red crown which I have elsewhere described. No. 1, which is the skull of my pet, Othello, had the same mark. He was captured near the place where No. 6 was killed.
No. 2 is the skull of a female nearly four years old. She had the same mark. She was also captured in the same basin, but on the opposite side of the lake. The facial bones of No. 6 show that he had received a severe blow early in life; but the fragments had knit together, and the effect could not be seen in the face of the ape while alive.
No. 8 is the skull of a large male from Lake Izanga, which is on the south side of the Ogowé River, more than a hundred miles from the coast. This is one of the three centers of population mentioned. I do not know the history of this specimen. It was presented to me by Mr. James Deemin, an English trader, with whom I traveled many days on the Ogowé River, and who extended to me many courtesies.
No. 5 is the skull of an adult female. By comparing it in profile with No. 6, it will be seen that they resemble each other closely, except that the muzzle of the latter projects a little more, and the curvature of the skull across the top is less; but the transverse distance is a little greater. Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are females; the others are males.
NATIVES SKINNING A GORILLA
(From a Photograph.)
While this series is not complete in either sex, it is an excellent one for comparative study. I do not know whether or not the heads of those with the crests were the same color as No. 6, but the ntyii, which I have mentioned as possibly a new specimen of the gorilla, does not have this crown of red. His ears are also said to be larger than those of the gorilla, but smaller than the chimpanzee’s. He is reputed to grow to a larger size than either of them. The skin of the gorilla is a dull black or mummy color over the body; but over the face it is a jet black, quite smooth and soft. It looks almost like velvet.