occasionally of fish. It is distributed in the arctic regions of both hemipheres, often confined to limited districts far removed from each other.

The capture of the walrus is more dangerous and less remunerative than that of the seal and is pursued both by land and sea. The tusks, which protrude downward from the upper jaw, afford a very white and hard ivory. The skin makes a porous leather more than an inch thick; the flesh is eaten by the Esquimaux and by arctic voyagers.

The uses to which the tusks are applied by the walrus are the scraping of prey out of the sand and to aid them in their ascent upon islands of ice, and as weapons of defence against the attacks of their enemies. When irritated these animals are sometimes very furious and vindictive. When surprised on the ice, the females first provide for the safety of their young ones by flinging them into the sea and conveying them to a secure place; they then return to the place where they were attacked to revenge any injury they may have received. They are strongly attached. to each other and will make every effort in their power to liberate a harpooned companion.

Swift Revenge upon the Attacking Boat.

A wounded walrus has been known to sink beneath the surface of the ocean, rise suddenly again, and bring with it multitudes of others, which have united in an attack on the boat, from which the harpoon was thrown. Great numbers of walrus regularly visit the Magdalene Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence every spring. They crawl up the sloping rocks of the coast in multitudes and when the weather is fair, they remain for many days; but on the first appearance of rain, they retreat to the water. Formerly their herds have been known to amount to seven or eight thousand.

In the night the hunters endeavor, taking advantage of a sea wind, to prevent the animals from smelling them, to separate those which are farthest advanced from those nearest to the sea, driving them in different directions. When separated they are killed with leisure, those nearest to the shore becoming the first victims. It is said that as many as fifteen hundred walruses have been killed at one time. They are then skinned and the fat, that surrounded them, is taken off and rendered into oil. The skin is cut into slices two or three inches wide and exported for traces and glue. The animals frequently weigh from 1500 to 3000 pounds and yield from one to two barrels of oil each. The whale-tailed moose or manati, and the round-tailed manati, belong to the family of walrus. The avarice of man has greatly reduced the number of walruses and to-day a herd of several hundred is rarely seen.

CHAPTER XII.

FOUR-HANDED ANIMALS.

The Gorilla-Giant of the Forest-A Missionary's Explorations and DiscoveriesCuriosity of Civilized Nations Awakened-Gorilla Huts-Low Order of Intelligence-Enormous Jaws and Physical Strength-The First White Man Who Killed a Gorilla-How Gorillas Bury their Dead-Thrilling Adventures of Du Chaillu— A Savage Combat-The Orang-Outang-Man-like Ape-Awkward Motions— Great Power of Mimicry-Dreaded Adversary-Laughable Tricks-Orang of the Prince of Orange-Escape from the Cage—Brute Gentleness and Affection—An Orang on Shipboard-Inveterate Tippler-Ravenous Thieves-Orang's Death— Guereza Monkey-Elegant Decoration-Beauty of Color-Monkey GrimacesDroll Antics-Proboscis Monkey-Ample Dimensions of Nose-Dog-Faced Baboon-Immense Troops-Prowlers and Plunderers-A Chaplain's Story— Chased by Baboons-Lion Monkey-Irritable Creatures-Hairy Appendages.

F the size and form of the gorilla, Professor Owen remarks, “no other idea of its nature than that of a kind of human being would be suggested; but the climbing faculty, the hairy body, and the skinning of the dead specimens, strongly suggest that they were great apes. The fact that apes, the closest observed resemblance to the negro, with human stature, and with hairy bodies, still exist. on the west coast of Africa, renders it highly probable that such were the creatures which Hanno, the explorer, saw captured, and called 'gorillas.'"

Battell, an English sailor, while a prisoner of the Portuguese, in Angola, speaks, it is believed, of the same creature, which, he says, is called "pongo," and of which he seems to have entertained precisely similar notions:-" He is in all proportions like a man, but that he is more like a giant in stature than a man; for he is very tall, and hath a man's face, hollow-eyed, with long hair upon his brows; his body is full of hair, but not very thick, and is of a dunnish color. He differeth not from man but in his legs, for he hath no calf. He goeth always upon his legs, and carrieth his hands clasped on the nape of his neck when he goeth upor the ground. They sleep on the trees, and build shelter from the rain. They feed on the fruit that they find in the woods, and upon nuts, for they eat no kind of flesh. They cannot speak, and have no more understanding than a beast. The people of the country, when they travel in the woods, make fires where they sleep at night, and in the morning, when they are gone, the pongoes will come and sit about the fire till it

goes out; for they have no understanding to lay the wood together. They go many together, and kill many negroes that travel in the woods. Many times they fall upon elephants, which come to feed where they are, and so beat them away with their clubbed fists and pieces of wood that they will run roaring away from them. These pongoes are never taken alive, because they are so strong that ten men cannot hold one of them; but they take many of their young ones with poisoned arrows. The young pongo hangs on its mother's body, with its hands fast clasped about her, so that, when any of the country people kill any of the females, they take the young, which hangs fast on its mother. When they die among themselves, they cover the dead with great heaps of boughs and wood, which is commonly found in the forests."

Interesting Discoveries by a Missionary.

Of these creatures no further account was given, until attention was devoted to them by Dr. Thomas Savage, a member of the Boston Society of Natural History, and at the time a medical missionary. On his voyage to America from Cape Palmas, he was unexpectedly detained on the Gaboon river, and the month of April, 1847, was spent at the house of the Rev. J. L. Wilson, senior missionary of the American Board of Foreign Missions to West Africa. Soon after his arrival, Mr. Wilson showed him a skull, represented by the natives to be that of a monkey-like animal, remarkable for its size, ferocity, and habits; and the doctor was led to believe that it had belonged to a new species of orang. Intent on further investigation, and, if possible, on deciding the point by the inspection of a specimen alive or dead, Mr. Wilson entered cordially into the matter, and promised his full co-operation; and having been a resident in the country for several years, well acquainted with the chiefs and people, highly regarded by them, and speaking freely their language, he was able to render the doctor advantages of signal importance. He did not succeed, however, in obtaining either a living or a dead specimen, but only several skulls of the two sexes, and of different ages, with other important parts of the skeleton of the gorilla. These portions were afterwards ably described, with several engravings, in a quarto pamphlet, on the return of Dr. Savage to America, by Dr. Wyman, professor of anatomy in Harvard University.

Professor Owen has recently given a full and most elaborate description of this creature, from which only a few particulars can now be taken. The lofty ridges of the skull, he affirms, give to the face of the gorilla a most forbidding appearance; the thick covering forming a scowling penthouse over the eyes. The nose is more prominent than in the chimpan

zee or orang-outang. The mouth is very wide, the lips large, and the chin very short and receding. The huge canine teeth in the male are very frightful. The eyelids have eyelashes, but there are no eyebrows; the ears are smaller in proportion than in man, and much smaller than in the chimpanzee. The length of the upper limbs is not greater than in man when compared with the trunk; they seem longer through the disproportionate shortness of the lower limbs.

The arm is longer than the forearm, which is remarkable, and the thumb reaches to beyond the first joint of the fore-finger, while it does not extend to that joint in the chimpanzee or other ape. The hand excites attention from the breadth, thickness, and great length of the palm; the fingers appear short, taper quickly at the ends to the nails, which are not larger or longer than in man. The back of the hand is hairy as far as the divisions of the fingers; the palm naked and callous, and the thumb scarcely half as thick as the fore-finger. The leg has no "calf," and grows thicker from the knee to the ankle. The sole of the foot is more walked upon than by the chimpanzee, or any other ape. The hind thumb or great toe is stronger than in those creatures; it stands out like a large thumb from the rest of the foot; its base swells below into a kind of ball; the nail is small and short. The sole is wider than in man, the foot more like a hand, but one of huge dimensions and immense power of grasp. And yet, the gorilla, judging from the structure of his grinding teeth, lives on fruits.

A Creature with Awkward Movements.

The gait of the Gorilla is shuffling; the motion of the body, which is never upright as in man, but bent forward, is somewhat rolling, or from side to side. The arms being longer than those of the chimpanzee, it does not stoop as much in walking; like that animal, it advances by thrusting its arms forward, resting the hands on the ground, and then giving the body a half-jumping, half-swinging motion between them. In this act it is said not to bend its fingers, but to make a fulcrum of its hand. When it assumes the walking position, it balances its huge body by bending the arms upwards.

The gorillas live in bands, which are not so numerous as those of the chimpanzee. Only one adult male is said to be seen in a band; and when the young males grow up, a contest takes place for mastery, and the strongest, by killing and driving out the others, establishes himself as head of the band. Dr. Savage says, "the silly stories about their carrying off women from the native towns, and vanquishing elephants, are unhesitatingly denied." Their dwellings, if they may be so called, consist simply