GIANT GORILLAS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5737, 4 November 1905, Page 15

GIANT GORILLAS.

M. Eugene Drusseaux, a French. offi« oial and an explorer, has just returned from Algiers, bringing with him photographs of giant gorillas, one of which was killed by his escort of native sharpshooters. The animal is of great size, being 7 feet 6 inches in height, white the" width of the shoulders is 4 feet. One of its hands when cut off weighed ,61b,,'while the carcase turned the scale at 7201 b, and the united efforts of eight native soldiers were necessary to drag it to the' French Residency at Oiieseoo. the administrative centre of Central Sangha, where M. Dupont, the Government Administrator, buried the animal and so preserved the skeleton. During the last twelve . months several travellers, have reported the presence in the uppoiv valleys of Lonani and Sangareah of "these enormous gorillas, which have never previously been seen, while the* Arabs state that several times the beasts have attacked caravans passing through the valley. These monster gorillas differ in many respects from all other* hitherto known. The cars are remarkably small, and the skin, is almost bars on,the client and stomach, while tha shoulders' and Hughs* are covered with long, 'thick hair. If, Bruseeaux bolives that they belong to a new, or at any rate hitherto, unknown species.