Much was said in the years 1875 and 1876 of the female ape Mafuca (often erroneously termed Mafoca), which was brought from the Loango coast and placed in the Zoological Gardens at Dresden. This was a wild, unmanageable creature, 120 cm. in height, reminding us in many respects of the gorilla. The face was prognathous; the ears were comparatively small, placed high on the skull, and projecting outwards; the supra-orbital arch was strongly developed; the end of the nose was broad; and there were rolls of fat on the cheeks. The creature was, moreover, strongly built, and the region of the hips and the belly were contracted, while the hands and feet were large and powerful. When I first saw this savage creature, early in September, 1875, it was full of vigour, and I was almost convinced that I saw a female gorilla, not quite adult, an opinion shared by such zoologists as K. Th. von Siebold and others, while it was vehemently opposed by Bolau and A. B. Meyer. At that time I made a drawing of its profile, which is given in Fig. 61, and which was taken at a moment when the animal happened to be resting from its wild gambols. In spite of some slight errors,[99] the illustration faithfully reproduces its general and quite original character, and especially the expression of its countenance. From the structure of the brain Bischoff attempted to show that this animal was simply a chimpanzee. No rational explanation can be attached to this suggestion. If, while Mafuca was still alive, I had examined the dead body of the female gorilla of which I have already spoken, and which was of about the same age, I should have been still more disposed to regard Mafuca as a true gorilla. The general physiognomical resemblance between these animals was very great. As I have mentioned in detail in my earlier works, the female gorilla had a high upper lip, and a somewhat small nose. Mafuca’s upper lip is undoubtedly still higher, but otherwise the physical correspondence between the two animals is very great. The hands of the female gorilla are still broader than those of Mafuca; and indeed, Brehm proposes to classify the latter animal as a new slender-handed species of anthropoid. The assumption which I have already contested in the earlier pages of this work, that the female type should be placed in the foreground in describing the species, is especially untenable in the case of the gorilla, in which the male character is extremely predominant.