Monthly_ for June, 18--.

My favorite haunt during the progress of this article was Coriander's
Menagerie; having resolved that this should be the masterpiece of my
life, I spared neither labor nor expense upon it, and actually procured
a season ticket to the menagerie, and passed many pleasant hours in
watching the wild animals, studying their habits, and drawing many
valuable conclusions from their points of resemblance and difference.
Consequently, though the apes and monkeys had furnished me with an
inexhaustible fund of amusement and interest, I was delighted beyond
measure when it was announced that Coriander had secured a live gorilla
for his collection of wild beasts. An agent had been dispatched to
Africa, and had sent home, with great secrecy, a real live specimen of
this dreadful beast; and so well had all the negotiations been kept
that nobody knew of what was being done, until the monster was fairly
caged and on exhibition at Coriander's Menagerie. I entered with zest
upon a study of the creature's habits and peculiarities; and while the
idle curiosity of mere wonder-mongers kept a vast crowd about the cage
wherein the furious beast was confined, calmly I surveyed it from a
safe distance and made my scientific observations for the benefit of
mankind. And when vulgar wonder at the strange beast had somewhat
subsided, and I could get nearer the cage and watch the gorilla, I was
more and more impressed with the human traits which I discovered in the
extraordinary animal. His manner of reclining was, though impish, half
human; and his grotesque gait, as he sprang from side to side of the
narrow prison, was suggestive of his supposititious congener-man; even
his terrible howl, which rent the air of the museum constantly, had a
human shade of sound.

One rainy day, when the great hall of the museum was unusually vacant