Apes and Monkeys: Their Life and Language

by R. L. Garner

Another man, whose name I am at liberty to mention, is Mr. J. H. Drake of Liverpool. By those who know him Mr. Drake has never been suspected of lacking courage in the hunt or of being given to romance. Yet in many years on the coast he saw but one school of these apes, and that was the same one that Mr. Deemin saw when the two men were traveling together. Others could be cited who testify that it is a rare thing for the most expert woodsman ever to see one of these creatures, and many of the stories told by the casual traveler cannot be received at par. I do not mean to impeach the veracity of others, but the temptation to romance is too great for some people to resist. While we cannot prove the negative by direct evidence, we must be permitted to doubt whether or not these apes are so frequently met in the jungle as they are alleged to be. I will give some reasons for being a sceptic on this subject.

Almost every yarn told by the novice is about the same in substance, and much the same in detail, as those related by others. It seems that most of them meet the same old gorilla, still beating his breast and screaming just as he did forty years ago. The number of gun-barrels that he is accused of having chewed up would make an arsenal sufficient to arm the volunteers. What becomes of all those that are attacked by this fierce monarch of the jungle? Not one of them ever gets killed, and not one of them ever kills the gorilla. Does he merely do this as a bluff and then recede from the attack? Or does he follow it up and seize his victim, tear him open, and drink his blood, as he is supposed to do? How does the victim escape? What becomes of the assailant? Who lives to tell the tale?

The gorilla has good ears, good eyes, and is a skillful bushman. One man walking through the jungle will make more noise than half a dozen gorillas make. The gorilla almost always sees and hears a man before he is seen or heard by him. He is shy and will not attack a man unless wounded or provoked to it. He is always on the alert for danger and rarely comes into the open parts of the bush except for food. He can conceal himself with more ease than a man can and has every advantage in making his escape. I do not believe that he will ever approach a man if he can evade him, but I quite believe that he will make a strong defense if surprised or attacked. I do not believe it possible for any one to see a great number of gorillas in any length of time unless he goes to some one place and remains there, as I have done. Even then he must sometimes wait for days without a trace of one. Silence and patience alone will enable him to see them. When the gorilla sees a man, he retires as soon as he discovers the nature of the thing before him. He does not always flee in haste, as some other animals do, but is more deliberate and cool about it. He will retreat in good order and always starts in time, if possible, to escape without being observed. I trust that I may be pardoned for not being able to believe that every stranger who visits that country is attacked by a gorilla.

Many people labor under the popular delusion that they have seen a gorilla with some itinerant menagerie, and it may be cruel of me to undeceive them. Up to this time there has been but one gorilla landed alive in America. This one arrived in Boston in the autumn of 1897. It was a mere baby and lived only five days. It was exhibited to the public during only a part of two days. The many alleged gorillas offered by mendacious showmen are vile fakes, and the exhibitors should be dealt with as impostors.

I regret that I have been compelled to deny much that has been said, but I make no apology for having done so. In this work I have sought to place these apes before the reader as I have seen them in their native forests. I have not clothed them in fine raiment or invested them with glamour. But I trust that this contribution may be found worthy of the approval of all men who love nature and respect fidelity.

I have the vanity to believe that the methods of study which I have employed will be made the means of farther research by more able students than the writer. In addition to those apes that I have seen in a wild state, I have seen about ten in captivity. Two of those were my own. They were good subjects for study, and I made the best use of them during the time I had them.

While in the jungle I accomplished one thing, in which I feel a just sense of pride, and that was making a gorilla take a portrait of himself. This will interest the amateur in the art of snapshots, and I shall relate it.

I selected a place in the forest where I found some tracks of the animal along the edge of a dense thicket of batuna. Under cover of the foliage I set up two pairs of stakes which were crossed at the tops, and to them was lashed a short pole forming something like a sawbuck. To this was fastened the camera, to which had been attached a trigger made of bamboo splits. One end of a string was fastened to the trigger, and the other end carried under a yoke to a distance of eight feet from the lens. At this point were attached a fresh plantain stalk and a nice bunch of the red fruit of the batuna. Upon this point the camera was focused, the trigger was set, and it was left to await the gorilla. That afternoon I returned to find that something had taken the bait, broken the string, sprung the trigger, and snapped the camera. I developed the plate, but could find no image of anything except the leaves in front of it. I repeated the experiment, with similar results, but could not understand how anything could steal the bait and yet not be shown in the picture. The third time I did this I was gratified to find the image of a gorilla, and also to discover the cause why the other experiments had not succeeded.

The deep shadows of the forest make it difficult to take a photograph without giving it a time exposure, and when the sun is under a cloud or on the wrong side of an object success is quite impossible. The leaves which were shown in the first two plates were only those which were most exposed to the light, and all the lower part of the picture was without detail. In the third trial it could be seen that the sun was shining at the instant of exposure. A part of the body of the gorilla was in the light, but most of it was in the shadow of the leaves above it. The left side of the head and face was quite distinct, so likewise were the left shoulder and arm. The hand and the bait could not have been distinguished except by their context. The right side of the head, the arm, and most of the body were lost in the view. The picture showed that the gorilla had taken the bait with his left hand, and that he was in a crouching posture at the moment.

While the photograph was very poor as a work of art, it was full of interest as an experiment. Although it did not result in getting a good picture, I did not regard the effort as a failure. It shows at least that such a thing is possible, and by careful efforts, often repeated, it could be made a means of obtaining some novel pictures. A little ingenuity would widen the scope of this device and make it possible to photograph birds, elephants, and everything else in the forest. When I return to that place on a like journey I shall carry the scheme into better effect.