ADVENTURES ON THE GREAT HUNTING GROUNDS OF THE WORLD
BY VICTOR MEUNIER.
The Gorilla – FOR three centuries the rumor has been current that there existed on the western coast of Africa, north and south of the equator, an ape of immense strength and gigantic size, of all animals the largest and most formidable the king of the African forests.
Let us see what traveler’s say concerning this animal.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century Andrew Battel, who had been for a long time a prisoner of the Portuguese in Angola, described, under the name of Pongo, an ape resembling a man in all his proportions, but as large as a giant, and so strong that ten men were not sufficient to subdue one of them.
“He has a human face,” said Battel, “with sunken eyes, long hair on the sides of his head, his face naked, as well as his ears and his hands; his body rather shaggy; his hair of dark brown. He differs from man in outward appearance chiefly in having little or no calves to his legs.