find pictured by old artists in some representations of the infernal regions. He advanced a few steps, then stopped to utter that hideous roar again, advanced again, and finally stopped at a distance of about six yards from us. And here, just as he began another of his roars, beating his breast in rage, we fired and killed him.

"With a groan, which had something terribly human in it, and yet 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."

In this, as in almost every hunting incident quoted by Du Chaillu, the animal's inability to support himself for any length of time on his hind-legs is especially noticed. On one occasion, when the gorilla advanced to within six yards (the length of an ordinary room) of the hunter before he was shot, it is said "his short and slender legs are unable to sustain the vast body. They totter beneath the weight, and the walk is a sort of waddle, in which the long arms are used in a clumsy way to balance the body and keep up the illsustained equilibrium. Twice he sat down to roar, evidently not trusting himself to this exertion while standing."

It is, however, consolatory to discover that throughout Du Chaillu's gorilla-hunting experiences, only one fatal accident occurred; indeed, the business-like way in which mention is made of chasing and killing the animal-"my men brought in a large male"-"my hunters this morning brought in the remains of a gorilla "-"all that remained from dinner of a great gorilla," etc., etc.- that it would seem not nearly so terrible a beast to hunt as his shape and make I would lead one to suppose. At the same time, it can not be for a moment doubted that the severest test of a man's nerve and pluck must be to find himself in a deep, silent forest-valley, with the great boughs and snake-like creepers interweaving overhead and making a deep twilight, face to face with a hideous roaring man-ape, and his life to pluck from its clashing jaws. The situation, however, may be better realized by a description of the fatal gorilla hunt, as narrated by Du Chaillu himself:

"Our little party separated, as is the custom, to stalk the woods in various directions. Gambo and I kept together. One brave fellow went off alone in a direction where he thought he could find a gorilla. The other three took another course. We had been about an hour separated when Gambo and I heard a gun fired but a little way from us, and presently another. We were already on our way

to the spot where we hoped to see a gorilla slain, when the forest began to resound with the most terrific roars. Gambo seized my arms in great agitation, and we hurried on, both filled with dreadful and sickening alarm. We had not gone far when our worst fears were realized. The poor brave fellow who had gone off alone was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and I thought at first quite dead. His bowels were protruding through the lacerated abdomen. Beside him lay his gun; the stock was broken, and the barrel bent and flattened. It bore plainly the marks of the gorilla's teeth.

"We picked him up, and I dressed his wounds as well as I could with rags torn from my clothes. When I had given him a little brandy to drink he came to himself, and was able, but with great difficulty, to speak. He said he had met the gorilla suddenly and face to face, and that it had not attempted to escape. It was, he said, a huge male and seemed very savage. It was in a very gloomy part of the wood, and the darkness, I suppose, made him miss. He said he took good aim and fired, when the beast was only eight yards from him, but the ball merely wounded it in the side. It at once began beating its breasts, and with the greatest rage advanced upon him. To run away was impossible; he would have been caught in the jungle before he had gone a dozen steps.

"He stood his ground, and, as quickly as he could, reloaded his gun. Just as he raised it to fire, the gorilla dashed it out of his hands, the gun going off in the fall; and then in an instant, and with a terrible roar, the animal gave him a tremendous blow with his immense open paw, frightfully lacerating the abdomen, and with this single blow laying bare part of the intestines. As he sank bleeding to the ground, the monster seized the gun, and the poor hunter thought he would have his brains dashed out with it. But the gorilla seemed to have looked upon this also as an enemy, and in his rage almost flattened the barrel between his strong jaws. Two days afterward the poor gorilla hunter died."

THE NSHIEGO-MBOUVÉ.

THE nshiego-mbouvé differs from the gorilla in being smaller, milder, far more docile, and in the singular habit of building for itself a nest or shelter of leaves amid the higher branches of trees. These singular shelters are generally built about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, and invariably on a tree which stands a little