Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/759

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EXTERNAL FORM OF THE MAN-LIKE APES.
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at the base. This part of the nose, attached to the very projecting forehead, has the effect of an altogether snout-like muzzle. It is intersected by a central longitudinal furrow, which divides the whole tip of the nose into two symmetrical halves. This furrow is more strongly marked in the case of adult animals than in the young. The aperture of the nostrils is large and triangular, with the cartilaginous point turned upward, and the edges applied to the bridge of the nose and to the cheeks have a somewhat retreating appearance. The lateral margins of this part of the nostril take an arched form, first diverging in different directions, then gradually converging again toward the upper lip. The lip is short, and this, combined with the large nose, gives a certain resemblance to the mouth of an ox. This resemblance is the more striking, as the whole of this region is covered with glandular skin of a deep-black color, which is either glabrous or provided with a few scattered hairs, but furnished with small flattened warts.

Below the eyes the cheeks are broad and very round, dwindling away and becoming depressed in the lower part of the face. They are seamed with curved wrinkles of varying depth, which tend downward in the same direction as the wrinkles on the lower eyelids. The short upper lip is provided with oblique folds which converge outward in the center. The points of the strong canine teeth, which in many individuals are from thirty-eight to forty millimetres long, and twenty millimetres wide, diverge a little from each other, and stretch the upper lip in an oblique direction, so that this part of the face takes the form of a triangular, beveled surface, with its prominent base-line between the canine teeth. It may also be observed that, in many individuals of this species, the nose is not very deeply set on the upper lip; that in others, again, the nose is decidedly raised, and the lip only presents a small hem below the nose. In many such cases the prognathism of the face is strongly marked, so as to give a baboon-like effect. In other specimens, again, this debased type is not allied with strongly marked prognathism.

If we take a front view of the skull of an aged male gorilla we see that the upper edges of the great supraorbital arches are beveled off below and at the sides. This beveled form is repeated in the broad cheek-bones, as we see them in front. The front view of the head, and indeed of the whole animal, presents a strongly projecting contour, an impression which is strengthened by the puffed cheeks, with their lateral pads of fat. The lower jaw, with its scarcely indicated chin, retreats in the center and dwindles into a triangular form. This contour is characteristic of the species. The whole skin of the face is glossy, set with few hairs, and of a deep-black color.

The ear (Fig. 2) averages sixty millimetres in length, and from thirty-six to forty millimetres in width. It seems to be fastened to the head by the back and upper part, is generally of an oval shape, and furnished with a strongly marked helix. The helix varies in