was full of brutishness, he fell forward on his face. The body shook convulsively for a few minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way, and then all was quiet; death had done its work, and I had leisure to examine the huge body. It proved to be five feet eight inches high, and the muscular development of the arms and breast showed the immense strength it had possessed.” Du Chaillu once had a capital view of some Gorillas at their meal. News having come that Gorillas had been recently seen in the neighbourhood of a plantation on the Fernandez Vas river, just south of the equator and not far from the West African coast, he got up early and went into it. He writes: “The plantation was a large one, and situated on very broken ground, surrounded by the virgin forest. It was a lovely morning; the sky was almost cloudless, and all around was as still as death, except the slight rustling of the tree tops moved by the gentle land breeze. When I reached the place, I had just to pick my way through the maze of tree-stumps and half-burned logs by the side of a field of cassada. [Illustration: FAMILY OF GORILLAS.] “I was going quietly along the borders of this when I heard in the grove of plantation trees towards which I was walking a great crushing noise like the breaking of trees. I immediately hid myself behind a bush, and was soon gratified with the sight of a female Gorilla; but before I had time to notice its movements, a second and third emerged from the masses of colossal foliage; at length, no less than four came in view. They were all busily engaged in tearing down the larger trees. One of the females had a young one following her. I had an excellent opportunity of watching the movements of the impish-looking band. The shaggy hides, the protuberant abdomens, the hideous features of these strange creatures, whose forms so nearly resemble man, made up a picture like a vision in a morbid dream. In destroying a tree, they first grasped the base of the stem with one of their feet, and then with their powerful arms pulled it down, a matter of not much difficulty with so loosely-formed a stem as that of the plantain. They then set upon the juicy fruit of the tree at the bases of the leaves, and devoured it with great voracity. While eating, they made a kind of chuckling noise, expressive of contentment. Many trees they destroyed, apparently out of pure mischief. Now and then they stood still and looked around. Once or twice they seemed on the point of starting off in haste, but recovered themselves, and continued their work. Gradually they got nearer to the edge of the dark forest, and finally disappeared.” On the next day he was carrying a light gun, having given his heavy double-barrelled rifle to a boy to carry, when in a deep hollow, flanked with sugar-cane, he saw on the slope opposite to him a gigantic Gorilla standing erect, and walking directly towards him. Pointing his rifle, he turned to look for the boy, but he had seen the