In the order of nature the gorilla occupies the second place below man. His habitat is in the lowlands of West Tropical Africa, and is confined to very narrow limits. The vague line which bounds his realm cannot be defined with absolute precision, but those generally given in books that treat of him are not correct. If he ever occupied any part of the coast north of the equator, he has long since become extinct in that part, but there is nothing to show that he ever did exist there. So far as I have been able to trace the lines that prescribe his native haunts, he appears to be confined to the low, delta country, lying between the Equator and Loango along the coast, and reaching eastward to the interior, an average distance of about one hundred miles. The eastern boundary is very irregular. To be more exact, the extreme limit on the north side would be the Gaboon River to its head-waters, thence southward to the Ogowe River to the mouth of the Nguni River; up that river twenty or thirty miles, thence a zigzag line along the western base of the dividing lands between the Congo basin and the Atlantic watershed, to the head-waters of the Chi Loango River, and with that to the coast. Beyond these lines I have never been able to find any trace of him, and along this boundary only now and then are they found. I have seen two adult and two infant skulls of the gorilla that were brought by Mr. Wm. S. Cherry, from the Kisango Valley, which lies north of the middle Congo in the interior. The skulls are the only evidence I have ever found of this ape existing so far eastward, but they were said to have come from that part of the valley lying directly under the equator. Mr. Cherry did not collect them himself, but secured them from natives, and does not claim to have seen any of these apes alive. There appear to be three centres of population: the first is in the basin of Izanga Lake; the second in the basin of Lake Fernan Vaz; and the third in the basin of the lake behind Sette Kama. They are rarely ever found in high or hilly districts, but appear to inhabit the hummock lands, which are only elevated a few feet above tide-level. This is singular, from the fact that the ape has a morbid dislike for deep water, and I think it doubtful if he can swim, although he has one peculiar character that belongs to aquatic animals, which is a kind of web between the digits, but its purpose cannot be to aid in swimming. I have been told that the gorilla can swim, and it may be true; but I have never observed anything in his habits to confirm this, while I have noted many facts that controvert it.