“MR. PONGO."

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1045, 31 October 1877, Page 3

“MR. PONGO."

[From the Melbourne “ Telegraph.”] Darwin’s theory of evolution is just now attracting more attention than usual in England, in consequence of the advent of “ Mr Pongo,” the Berlin gorilla. This remarkable creature is the first of his kind which has ever reached Europe alive, and as his ways are in many respects peculiarly human, it is not to wondered at that he should have occasioned much curiosity. Mr Pongo is scarcely four years old, and has not yet entered on the period of teething ; but he is more than 3ft. high, and has already muscles of extraordinary rigidity and firmness. With regard to his habits, we learn from the London newspapers that he lives principally upon farinaceous food and fruits, but can “ cat. beefsteak, drink beer, and smoke, after the American fashion, puffing the smoke out again through his nostrils.” His habits in this particular appear to bo quite up to the standard of our fastest colonial youths, and if, amongst his other accomplishments, he coidd only swear, there would be good reason to believe that the “missing link” had at length been discovered. But, unfortunately for the Darwinian hypothesis, the intelligence of the gorilla, like that of the magpie, is limited to imitation, lie will applaud humour by heating a stick on the floor, or clapping his hands ; and when Ire tries to write, the pencil goes at once to his mouth, but the writing is a failure. Just where the exercise of a little reason is required, Mr Pongo is a hopeless lunatic, and, worse than that, he lias not been gifted with the power of speech, even to the most limited extent. The lowest race of human beings in the universe have a language which may be easily acquired, but the gorilla, like other monkeys of a lower order, jabbers with about as much

meaning as a hen cackles, and no more. Supposing men to be the lineal descendants of the gorilla, “ the most difficult thing to conceive about him,” says a London contemporary, “is why his coat should have ever fallen off. Under what circumstances could a gorilla without a hairy skin be better fitted for survival than a gorilla with one ? Surely he would bo less fitted. That the strength of the gorilla-man should decline as his brain grew wider and devised substitutes for strength, is conceivable, but why should his coat fall off ?” It might be replied to this that the coat would decline in the same way as the strength when the brain grew wider and devised substitutes, but this is only answering one fallacy with another. There is no evidence of the expanded brain in the gorilla. On the contrary, he has less intelligence than the sheep-dog, and if he possesses any ideas at all, he is as helpless to express them as that domesticated animal the mule. When Mr Pongo has advanced another stage, and is competent to read the newspapers, and quote the price of stock, or even to enjoy a game of euchre along with his pipe and beer, we may be more inclined to extend to him the right hand of fellowship, and regard him as the long lost “link,” but, in the meantime, he must be content to trace his genealogy back to the quadrumana of Borneo and Sumatra.