In captivity it is docile and intelligent, but usually fails to stand a northern climate for more than a few months. It is easily taught to wear clothes, to eat and drink in civilised fashion, to understand what is said to it, and reply with a limited vocabulary of grunts. Sally learnt to count perfectly up to six, and less perfectly to ten; she could also distinguish white from any colour, but if other colours were presented her she failed, apparently from colour-blindness. Of this ape the late Dr. G. J. Romanes wrote with something more than the enthusiasm of a clever man pursuing a favourite theme: "Her intelligence was conspicuously displayed by the remarkable degree in which she was able to understand the meaning of spoken language—a degree fully equal to that presented by an infant a few months before emerging from infancy, and therefore higher than that which is presented by any brute, so far at least as I have evidence to show." Romanes here speaks only, be it noticed, of ability to understand human speech—not to think and act. But this is in itself a great mark of intelligence on human lines. "Having enlisted the co-operation of the keepers, I requested them to ask the ape repeatedly for one straw, two straws, three straws. These she was to pick up and hand out from among the litter of her cage. No constant order was to be observed in making these requests; but whenever she handed a number not asked for her offer was to be refused, while if she gave the proper number her offer was to be accepted, and she was to receive a piece of fruit in payment. In this way the ape had learnt to associate these three numbers with the names. As soon as the animal understood what was required, she never failed to give the number of straws asked for. Her education was then completed in a similar manner from three to four, and from four to five straws. Sally rarely made mistakes up to that number; but above five, and up to ten, to which one of the keepers endeavoured to advance her education, the result is uncertain. It is evident that she understands the words seven, eight, nine, and ten to betoken numbers higher than those below them. When she was asked for any number above six, she always gave some number over six and under ten. She sometimes doubled over a straw to make it present two ends, and was supposed (thus) to hasten the attainment of her task." By no means all the chimpanzees are so patient as Sally. One kept in the Zoological Gardens for some time made an incessant noise by stamping on the back of the box in which it was confined. It struck this with the flat of its foot while hanging to the cross-bar or perch, and made a prodigious din. This seems to bear out the stories of chimpanzees assembling and drumming on logs in the Central African forests.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
HEAD OF MALE GORILLA.
This is a photograph of one of the first gorillas ever brought to England. It was sent by the famous M. du Chaillu.
The Gorilla.
The name of this enormous ape has been known since 450 B.C. Hanno the Carthaginian, when off Sierra Leone, met with wild men and women whom the interpreter called Gorillas. The males escaped and flung stones from the rocks, but several females were captured. These animals could not have been gorillas, but were probably baboons. Andrew Battell, already mentioned, described the gorilla under the name of Pongo. He says it is like a man, but without understanding even to put a log on a fire; it kills Negroes, and drives off the elephant with clubs; it is never taken alive, but its young are killed with poisoned arrows; it covers its dead with boughs. Dr. Savage described it in 1847. Later Du Chaillu visited its haunts, and his well-known book relates how he met and killed several specimens. But Mr. Winwood Reade, who also went in quest of it, declared that Du Chaillu, like himself, never saw a live gorilla. Von Koppenfels, however, saw a family of four feeding, besides shooting others. The late Miss Kingsley met several, one of which was killed by her elephant-men.
The gorilla has a limited range, extending from 2° north to 5° south latitude in West Africa, a moist overgrown region including the mouth of the Gaboon River. How far east it is found is uncertain, but it is known in the Sierra del Cristal. In 1851-52 it was seen in considerable numbers on the coast.
The gorilla is the largest, strongest, and most formidable of the Primates. An adult male is from 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet high, heavily built, with arms and chest of extraordinary power. The arms reach to the middle of the legs. The hands are clumsy, the thumb short, and the fingers joined by a web. The neck scarcely exists. The leg has a slight calf. The toes are stumpy and thick; the great toe moves like a thumb. The head is large and receding, with enormous ridges above the eyes, which give it a diabolical appearance. The canine teeth are developed into huge tusks. The nose has a long bridge, and the nostrils look downwards. The ear is small and man-like.
In colour the gorilla varies from deep black to iron-grey, with a reddish tinge on the head; old animals become grizzled. The outer hair is ringed grey and brown; beneath it is a woolly growth. The female is smaller—not exceeding 4 feet 6 inches—and less hideous, as the canines are much smaller, and the ridges above the eyes are not noticeable, a feature common also to the young.