GORILLA HUNTING
Paul Du Challiau the great traveller and naturalist, who died in the year of 1903, was the first white man to discover the existence of the Gorilla. While he was exploring in the Gaboon Country, on the West Coast of Africa, the natives told him of a mighty ape, and of its great strength and height. He could see for himself that they held it in the greatest dread. At first he could hardly credit their stories but he was soon convinced when the natives took him into the forests and showed him the creature alive.
Later Du Challiau returned to Europe and gave the great men of science an account of this strange animal. He was laughed at, treated with scorn and called a liar. If you examine history carefully you will find that this has been the fate of every man who has made a new discovery, or visited some unexplored land. After a while, when the facts were proved, the scientific world did not apologize and admit that it had been mistaken, but simply ignored its first blunder. However Du Challiau was not to be put off so easily, and he forthwith returned to the Gaboon Country, and succeeded in killing a few gorillas and returned to Europe with the skins, and a huge skeleton. Now the majority of the museums throughout the land have stuffed specimens of this great ape which you may see any day.
Gorilla hunting, looked at from any side, is a dangerous business, and doubly so if an attempt is made to catch a specimen alive. A story is told of a hunter who managed to kill a gorilla and this is what he says.
He took a number of natives as escorts and guides, and travelled many miles into the forest. Now one of the first things that struck the traveller was that in this country animal life was exceedingly scarce, and this was curious because the Gaboon Country is situated in one of the hottest parts of Africa where every place teems with life. It is supposed the gorilla will not let anything live near it, for even birds that live in the tree tops are silent and hard to find.
It was not long before the gorilla was discovered. The great ape was heard roaring as it crashed through the undergrowth and soon it appeared walking on its feet like a chimpanzee. The nearest man to it was a brave native hunter, who stood at one side in case of a frontal attack. The white hunter had been told to reserve his fire until the brute came quite close, for a bullet at a long distance would not have any deadly effect.
The gorilla was sly and came slowly forward as though it did not see an enemy at its side, but it suddenly swung round and charged the native, who tripped over a root, and the next instant the ape was upon him. The gorilla seized its victim by the neck and shook him only once, and then let
