Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
My next informant was the Orang Kaya, or chief of the Balow Dyaks, on the Sim¯unjon
River. He said: 'The Mias has no enemies; no animals dare attack it but the crocodile and
the python. He always kills the crocodile by main strength, standing upon it, pulling open its
jaws, and ripping up its throat. If a python attacks a Mias, he seizes it with his hands, and
then bites it, and soon kills it. The Mias is very strong; there is no animal in the jungle so
strong as he.'
It is very remarkable that an animal so large, so peculiar, and of such a high type of form
as the Orang-utan, should be confined to so limited a district—to two islands, and those al-
most the last inhabited by the higher Mammalia; for, eastward of Borneo and Java, the
Quadrumania, Ruminants, Carnivora, and many other groups of Mammalia, diminish rap-
idly, and soon entirely disappear. When we consider, further, that almost all other animals
have in earlier ages been represented by allied yet distinct forms—that, in the latter part of
the tertiary period, Europe was inhabited by bears, deer, wolves, and cats; Australia by
kangaroos and other marsupials; South America by gigantic sloths and ant-eaters; all differ-
ent from any now existing, though intimately allied to them—we have every reason to be-
lieve that the Orang-utan, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla have also had their forerunners.
With what interest must every naturalist look forward to the time when the caves and ter-
tiary deposits of the tropics may be thoroughly examined, and the past history and earliest
appearance of the great man-like apes be at length made known.
I will now say a few words as to the supposed existence of a Bornean Orang as large as
the Gorilla. I have myself examined the bodies of seventeen freshly-killed Orangs, all of
which were carefully measured; and of seven of them I preserved the skeleton. I also ob-
tained two skeletons killed by other persons. Of this extensive series, sixteen were fully
adult, nine being males, and seven females. The adult males of the large Orangs only varied
from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2 inches in height, measured fairly to the heel, so as to give the
height of the animal if it stood perfectly erect; the extent of the outstretched arms, from 7
feet 2 inches to 7 feet 8 inches; and the width of the face, from 10 inches to 13½ inches. The
dimensions given by other naturalists closely agree with mine. The largest Orang measured
by Temminck * was 4 feet high. Of twenty-five specimens collected by Schlegel and
Müller, the largest old male was 4 feet 1 inch; and the largest skeleton in the Calcutta Mu-
seum was, according to Mr. Blyth, * 4 feet 1½ inch. My specimens were all from the north-
west coast of Borneo; those of the Dutch from the west and south coasts; and no specimen
has yet reached Europe exceeding these dimensions, although the total number of skins and
skeletons must amount to over a hundred.
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