Natural History in Anecdote Part 1

Natural History in Anecdote.

by Various.

PREFACE.

Ill.u.s.trations are like windows to the house of knowledge. They let light in upon the understanding, and they facilitate the outlook upon truth and beauty. To ill.u.s.trate is to help one sense by the use of another, to reason by a.n.a.logy, and to teach the unknown by the known. When definition fails, ill.u.s.tration often carries conviction, and the most successful teachers are those who make the best use of sound and telling ill.u.s.trations. How many lessons would have been wholly forgotten by us, but for the ill.u.s.trations which made their meanings clear, and left their truths for ever in our minds?

The book of nature is full of ill.u.s.trations which help the understanding of the book of life, and no ill.u.s.trations are more valuable and fascinating, whether as revelations of the order and habits of Nature herself, or as parallels and parables, full of suggestive application to the social and moral life of humanity, than those afforded by the study of Natural History.

To gather into a convenient volume Ill.u.s.trative Anecdotes of Natural History, which shall throw light upon the study of Animal Life, for those pursuing it for its own sake, and help to the understanding of Nature herself is the primary object of this work, while it is hoped that it may serve a secondary purpose of no small utility, in suggesting social and moral parallels.

With a view to its first purpose the ill.u.s.trations are cla.s.sified in order as those of Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Fishes, etc., etc., and as much knowledge of Natural History as can be conveyed in anecdote form has been attempted. The book will thus, it is hoped, be a valuable aid to the teacher of Natural History, as a manual of ill.u.s.trations for his lessons, as well as full of interest to the general reader, who may not wish to devote the time necessary to more exhaustive scientific study.

A. H. M.

INTRODUCTION.

Science.

Science is cla.s.sified truth. Men study the heavenly bodies, note their characteristics, observe their movements, and define their relations.h.i.+ps; and having verified their deductions by repeated experiments, arrange the truths they have discovered into systems, and by cla.s.sifying their knowledge reduce it to a science: this science they call Astronomy. Astronomy is thus the cla.s.sified arrangement of all known truths concerning the heavenly bodies. Geology, similarly, is the cla.s.sified arrangement of all known truths concerning the material structure of the Earth.

The Kingdoms of Nature.

The Natural World has been variously divided for the purposes of study.

Linnaeus divided it into three kingdoms; (I) the Mineral kingdom (II) the Vegetable kingdom and (III) the Animal kingdom, thus naming the three kingdoms in the order of their natural geneses. The Mineral kingdom comprises the _inorganic_ forms of nature,--those which have no organism and which can only increase by external addition. The Vegetable and Animal kingdoms comprise the organic life of nature,--those forms which are provided with means for promoting their own development and propagating species. The Vegetable kingdom, while easily distinguishable from the Mineral kingdom is in some of its forms so similar to the lower forms of animal life as to suggest relations.h.i.+p between the two; while the Animal kingdom, beginning with the lower forms which approximate so closely to vegetable forms, embraces the whole range of animal life and reaches its highest order in man. The science which treats of organic life as a whole is called Biology, while its two departments are separately known as Botany and Zoology. Natural History is a general term popularly applied to the study of Zoology.

Zoology.

Zoology is the science of animal life. It deals with the origin of species, and the evolution of the varied forms of animated nature, and treats of the structure, habits, and environment of all living creatures. Scientifically speaking, Zoology is the cla.s.sified arrangement of all known truths concerning all animal organisms.

Cla.s.sification.

For convenience in study the Animal kingdom is divided into seven Sub-kingdoms, each of which is further divided into cla.s.ses. These Sub-kingdoms are known as: I Vertebrata, II Arthropoda, III Mollusca, IV Echinodermata, V Vermes, VI Clenterata, and VII Protozoa. Sub-kingdom I, Vertebrata, includes all animals distinguished by the possession of Vertebrae or back-bones, and its cla.s.ses are I _Mammalia_:--animals that suckle their young; II _Aves_:--Birds; III _Reptilia_:--Reptiles; IV _Batrachia_:--Frogs, Toads, etc.; and V _Pisces_:--Fishes. Sub-kingdom II, Arthropoda, includes the Insect families, etc., which it also divides into cla.s.ses. Sub-kingdom III, Mollusca, animals of the cuttle-fish order, including limpets, oysters, and slugs. Sub-kingdom IV, Echinodermata, a large number of marine animals, such as the star-fish and the sea-urchin. Sub-kingdom V, Vermes, the various cla.s.ses of worms. Sub-kingdom VI, Clenterata, corals and sponges, etc., etc., and Sub-kingdom VII, Protozoa, protoplasms and the lowest forms of animal life. This volume is devoted to the ill.u.s.tration of the first of these sub-kingdoms, the Vertebrata, with its five cla.s.ses, Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Batrachia and Pisces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Gorilla]

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

SUB-KINGDOM I--VERTEBRATA.

CLa.s.s I--MAMMALIA.

ORDER I.

PRIMATES.

The most perfect of all animals is man, for besides having a marvellous animal organism he possesses reason, which so far transcends the highest instincts of other animals, that it places him in a category by himself.

SUB-ORDER I.

Man-shaped Animals.

Next to man it is convenient to deal with man-shaped animals, (_anthropoidea_)--those animals which most resemble him in external appearance and internal organism. This brings us to the order called _Quadrumana_ or four-handed animals which include Lemurs and their allied forms, and manlike monkeys. Monkeys are divided into five families, one at least of which has to be further divided into sub-families to accommodate its variety. These families are: I The Apes; II The Sacred Monkeys; III The Cheek-pouched Monkeys; IV The Cebidae, with its several sub-families, and V The Marmosets. The first three of these families inhabit the old world, the last two belong to the new.

The Ape Family.

The family of the Apes includes the Gorilla, the Chimpanzee, the Orang-utan or mias, the Gibbons or long-armed Apes, and the Siamang; of these the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee belong to the West of Africa, the Orang-utan to Borneo, the Gibbons to a.s.sam, the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Cambodia and Hainan, and the Siamang to Java and Sumatra.

The Gorilla.

The gorilla is the largest of the ape family, and sometimes attains to the height of six feet. It is also the fiercest, if not the strongest, of man-shaped animals. It belongs to the genus Troglodytes of which the chimpanzee is the only other species, and it inhabits a somewhat limited range of Equatorial Africa, where it makes for itself nests of sticks and foliage, among the lower branches of trees, and lives upon berries, nuts and fruits. Though apparently a vegetarian the gorilla has enormous physical strength. His arms bear much the same proportion to the size of his body as those of man do relatively, but his lower limbs are shorter, and have no calves, the leg growing thicker from the knee downwards. The hands are broad, thick, and of great length of palm, and are remarkable for their strength; the feet, broader than those of man, and more like hands, are very large and of great power. The gorilla uses his hands when walking or running, but as his arms are longer than those of other apes, and his legs shorter he stoops less than they do in moving from place to place. The gorilla herds in small companies, or rather families, one adult male being the husband and father of the band. The females are much smaller than the males.

The Ancestors of the Gorilla.

The gorilla, though rediscovered in recent years, was apparently known to the ancients. Hanno, a Carthaginian admiral who flourished some five or six hundred years B.C., once sailed from Carthage with a fleet of sixty vessels and a company of 30,000 persons, under instructions to proceed past the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar), with a view to planting colonies on the western coast of Africa. In the course of their travels they discovered several islands inhabited by wild creatures with hairy bodies. "There were," says the ancient navigator, "many more females than males, all equally covered with hair on all parts of the body. The interpreters called them _gorillas_. On pursuing them, we could not succeed in taking a single male, they all escaped with astonis.h.i.+ng swiftness, and threw stones at us; but we took three females, who defended themselves with so much violence, that we were obliged to kill them; but we brought their skins, stuffed with straw, to Carthage." Professor Owen remarks upon this that "though such creatures would suggest to Hanno and his crew no other idea of their nature than that of a kind of human being, yet the climbing faculty, the hairy body, and the skinning of the dead specimens strongly suggest that they were great apes. The fact that apes somewhat resembling the negroes, of human size and with hairy bodies, still exist on the west coast of Africa renders it highly probable that such were the creatures which Hanno saw, captured, and called 'gorullai'."

A Gorilla Hunt.

Paul du Chaillu, in his "Stories of the Gorilla Country," gives a graphic description of his first sight of these "wild men of the woods."

He was inspecting the ruins of a native village with a party of Africans, when they discovered footprints which the natives immediately recognised as those of the gorilla. "It was," says he, "the first time I had seen the footprints of these wild men of the woods, and I cannot tell you how I felt. Here was I now, it seemed, on the point of meeting, face to face, that monster, of whose ferocity, strength and cunning, the natives had told me so much, and which no man before had hunted. By the tracks it was easy to know that there must have been several gorillas in company. We prepared at once to follow them. My men were remarkably silent, for they were going on an expedition of more than usual risk; for the male gorilla is literally the king of the forest--the king of the equatorial regions. He and the crested lion of Mount Atlas are the two fiercest and strongest beasts of that continent. The lion of South Africa cannot be compared with either for strength or courage. As we left the camp, the men and women left behind crowded together, with fear written on their faces. Miengai, Ngolai, and Makinda set out for the hunt in one party; myself and Yeava formed another. We determined to keep near each other, so that in case of trouble we might be at hand to help one another. For the rest silence and a sure aim were the only cautions to be given. I confess that I was never more excited in my life. For years I had heard of the terrible roar of the gorilla, of its vast strength, of its fierce courage when only wounded. I knew that we were about to pit ourselves against an animal which even the enormous leopards of the mountains fear, which the elephants let alone and which perhaps has driven away the lion out of his territory; for the king of beasts, so numerous elsewhere in Africa, is not met with in the land of the gorilla. We descended a hill, crossed a stream on a fallen log, crept under the trees, and presently approached some huge boulders of granite. In the stream we had crossed we could see plainly that the animals had just crossed it, for the water was still disturbed. Along side of the granite blocks lay an immense dead tree, and about this the gorillas were likely to be. Our approach was very cautious. With guns c.o.c.ked and ready we advanced through the dense wood, which cast a gloom even at mid-day over the whole scene. I looked at my men and saw that they were even more excited than myself. Slowly we pressed on through the dense bush, dreading almost to breathe for fear of alarming the beasts. Makinda was to go to the right of the rock, while I took the left. Unfortunately he and his party circled it at too great a distance.

The watchful animals saw him. Suddenly I was startled by a strange, discordant, half human cry, and beheld four young and half-grown gorillas running towards the deep forest. I was not ready. We fired but hit nothing. Then we rushed on in pursuit; but they knew the woods better than we. Once I caught a glimpse of one of the animals again; but an intervening tree spoiled my mark, and I did not fire. We pursued them till we were exhausted, but in vain. I protest I felt almost like a murderer when I saw the gorilla this first time. As they ran on their hind legs with their heads down, their bodies inclined forward, their whole appearance was that of hairy men running for their lives. Add to this their cry, so awful yet with something human in its discordance, and you will cease to wonder that the natives have the wildest superst.i.tions about these 'wild men of the woods.'"

Du Chaillu's First Gorilla.

In his "Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa" du Chaillu gives an equally thrilling account of the capture of his first gorilla.

He says: "We started early, and pushed through the most dense and impenetrable part of the forest; in hopes to find the very home of the beast I so much wished to shoot. Hour after hour we travelled and yet no signs of gorillas. Only the everlasting, little, chattering monkeys--and not many of these--and occasionally birds. Suddenly Miengai uttered a little cluck with his tongue which is the native way of showing that something is stirring and that a sharp look-out is necessary. And presently I noticed, ahead of us seemingly, a noise as of some one breaking down branches or twigs of trees. This was a gorilla--I knew at once by the eager satisfied looks of the men. We walked with the greatest care making no noise at all. Suddenly, as we were yet creeping along, in a silence which made a heavy breath seem loud and distinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla. Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on all fours; but when he saw our party he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight I think I shall never forget. Nearly six feet high (he proved four inches shorter), with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely glaring, large, deep gray eyes, and a h.e.l.lish expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision: thus stood before us this king of the African forest. He was not afraid of us. He stood there and beat his breast with his huge fists till it resounded like an immense ba.s.s-drum, which is the gorillas' mode of offering defiance; meantime giving vent to roar after roar. The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in these African woods. It begins with a sharp _bark_, like an angry dog, then glides into a deep ba.s.s _roll_, which literally and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder along the sky. So deep is it that it seems to proceed less from the mouth and throat than from the deep chest and vast paunch.

His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood motionless on the defensive, and the crest of short hair which stands on his forehead began to twitch rapidly up and down, while his powerful fangs were shown as he again sent forth his thunderous roar. He advanced a few steps--then stopped to utter that hideous roar again--advanced again, and finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us. And here, just as he began another of his roars, beating his breast with 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. It proved to be five feet eight inches high, and the muscular development of the arms and breast showed what immense strength it had possessed." A smaller gorilla, shot by M. du Chaillu on another occasion, measured five feet six inches in height, fifty inches round the chest, and his arms had a spread of seven feet two inches.