Paul Du Chaillu.

The large audience which filled Sanders to overflowing last evening to hear Paul Du Chaillu, the great explorer, were delighted by a vivid description of his travels and explorations in Africa.

Mr. Du Chaillu spoke most informally. His narrative overflowed with striking anecdotes, amusing details, and startling bits of information. He showed a great sense of humor and his witticisms added much to the enjoyment of his talk. He was even quite ready to imitate the various cries of the animals he described. The charm of the address lay largely in his personality, and any reproduction of it is impossible.

From his boyhood, Mr. Chaillu said, he had been fond of animals, and had then learned how to preserve them. He was eager to go into the wildest parts of the world, and when seventeen, set sail for Africa.

The home of the ape and gorilla is in the big forest, three thousand miles long and twenty-five hundred miles wide, situate in the equatorial regions of Africa. In this forest are trees some one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high, and others even five hundred feet in height. Under these is the vast jungle, impenetrable except as one follows the path of the natives form tribe to tribe.

As he went from tribe to tribe he heard many marvellous stories, some of pigmies and others of monstrous creatures. These stories, improbable as they seemed, all agreed with one another. Convinced finally that there must be some truth in them, he determined to push on into the forest. There he was so fortunate as to kill a monster gorilla, the first gorilla killed by any white man since Hannibal slew them two thousand five hundred years ago.

The dimensions of this creature were monstrous; the stretch of arms was ninety-four inches, the chest measured seventy inches around.

When he returned he had the skins and skeletons of thirty-five gorillas, but for years the full value of this collection was not recognized. Neither the Smithsonian Institute nor Harvard cared for them.

M. Du Chaillu spoke also of his travels and explorations in Germany and in the basin of the Baltic.