The Berlin gorilla, "Mr. Pongo," the only specimen yet brought
alive to Europe, has arrived at the Westminster Acparium. The creature is not yet four years old, and has not yet entered on the period of teething, but it is 3 ft. /. in. high, and has already muscles of extraordinary rigidity and firmness. He eats farinaceous food and fruits, but can eat beef-steak, drink beer, and smoke, after the African fashion, puffing the smoke out again through his nostrils. Like other monkeys, he can imitate Almost any action, and imitate with what appears to be humour —for instance, he applauds laughter occasionally by beating a stick on the floor, or clapping his hands—but the most human thing about him seems to be a trick of putting everything in his mouth, like a child of a year old. For instance, if he tries to write, the pencil goes at once to his mouth. The most difficult thing to conceive about him, on the Darwinian hypothesis, is why his coat should have ever fallen off. Under what circum- stances could a gorilla without a hairy skin be better fitted for survival than a gorilla with one ? Surely ho would be less fitted. That the strength of the gorilla-man should decline as his brain grew wider and devised substitutes for strength, is con- ceivable, but why should his coat fall off?
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