Gorillas & Chimpanzees

by R. L. Garner

I once saw a specimen at Cameroon, and was told that 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, 200 miles south of Gaboon. Even with the greatest care in hunting up the history of specimens one may fail, and often does in tracing it to its true source, but every one so far, that I have followed up, has been brought 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, 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 that part.

Along the Lower Congo the gorilla is known only in 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 north-west of Stanley Pool.

I am indebted to the late Carl Steckelmann, who was drowned at Mayumba in my presence last October. He was an old resident of the coast, a good explorer, a careful observer, and an extensive traveller. I knew him well, and secured from him much information concerning the gorilla. He traced out with me, on a map, what he believed to be the south and south-east limits of the gorilla. Not thirty minutes before the fatal 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 its fulfilment.

Dr. Wilson, who was the first missionary at Gaboon and located there in 1842, wrote a lexicon of the native language about six years after that time. In this he entirely omits the name of the gorilla. Dr. Walker eight years later gave the definition, "a monkey larger than a man." But he had never seen a specimen of the ape, except the skulls and a skeleton which were brought from other parts. It is true that Dr. Savage first learned at Gaboon about the gorilla, and secured a skull at that place from which he made drawings, and on which account his name was attached to the animal in Natural History. Dr. Ford a few years later sent the first skeleton to America, and Captain Harris sent the first to England. The former is in the Museum of Zoology at Philadelphia. Both of these specimens may have come from any place a hundred miles away from Gaboon.

It is possible at this early date the gorilla may have occupied the peninsula south of the Gaboon River, in greater numbers than he has ever done since, because up to that time there had been no demand for him; but if such was true at that time, it is not so now, and if he is not extinct in that part, he is so rare as to make it doubtful whether or not he is found there at all.

In four journeys along the Ogowe River and the lakes of that valley, I made careful inquiries at many of the towns, and the natives assured me that the gorillas lived on the south side of that river. I spent five days at the village of Mbiro, which is located on the north side of the river and about fifty miles from the coast. There I was told by the native woodsmen that no gorillas lived on the north side, but there were plenty of them along the lakes south of the river. They said that in the forest back of that town were plenty of chimpanzees, and that they were sometimes mistaken for gorillas, but there were absolutely none of the latter in that part. In view of these and countless other facts, I deem it safe to say that few or no gorillas can be found north of the Ogowe River at any point, and I even doubt if the specimen heard of on the Komo was a genuine gorilla. The natives sometimes claim to have something of the kind for sale in order to get a bonus from some trader, when in truth he may not have anything of the kind.

The only point north of the Ogowe at which I had any reason to believe a gorilla could be found was in the neighbourhood of a small lake called Inenga. This lake is nearly due west from the mouth of the Nguni River and something more than a hundred miles from the coast. Certain reports along that part appeared to have some flavour of truth, but there was no proof except the word of the natives.

In the lake region south of the river they are fairly abundant as far south as the head-waters of the Rembo Nkami and through the low country of the Esyira tribe, but they are very rare in the forests, and unknown in the highlands and plains of this country. South of the Chi Loango they are quite unknown, and south of the Congo never heard of.

There are no means possible to estimate their number, but they are not so numerous as may be supposed, and from the reckless slaughter of them by the natives in order to secure them for white men, they may soon become extinct. Their ferocity alone has saved them up to this time from such a fate, but the use of approved arms will soon overcome that.

The skeleton of the gorilla is so nearly the same as that of the chimpanzee, which has elsewhere been compared to the human skeleton, that we shall not review the comparison at length, but must note one marked feature in the external form of the skull, which differs alike from other apes and man.