The temptation to shoot her was almost too great to resist, and the desire to capture her babe made it all the more so; but up to that time I had refrained from firing my gun anywhere within a radius of half a mile or so of my cage, and the natives had agreed to the same thing. My purpose in doing so was to avoid frightening the apes away from the locality. I had been told by the native hunters before this, that if I wounded one of them the others would leave the vicinity and not return perhaps for weeks. They say if you kill one the others do not appear to notice it so much as if it were wounded, although they seem to be aware of the fact and for the time flee, but will return again within a short time. I could have shot this one with perfect ease and safety. As she approached, her head and breast were towards me; just before she discovered me her left side was in plain view, and when she sat down her breast was perfectly exposed, so that I could have shot her in the heart, the breast, or the head. Her baby lay upon her back, with its arms embracing her neck and its feet caught under her arms. The cunning little imp saw me long before the mother did, but it gave her no warning of danger. It lay with its cheek resting on the back of her head. Its black face looked as smooth and soft as velvet. Its big brown eyes were looking straight at me, but it betrayed no sign of fear or even of concern. It really had a pleased expression, and was the nearest approach to a smile I have ever seen on the face of a gorilla. I believe that this is their method of carrying the young, and I have elsewhere assigned other reasons for this belief. In this case it is not a matter of belief, but one of knowledge, and everything that I have observed conspires to say that this is no exception to the rule.