14 Mr Grant's account of an Orang-Outangfrom Borneo. 



sages in Dr Abel's account of the capture of a gigantic orang 

 by Captain Cornfoot on the island of Sumatra as corrobora- 

 tive of this belief. " On the approach of the party he came 

 to the ground; and, when pursued, sought refuge on another 

 tree at some distance, exhibiting, as he moved, the abear- 

 ance of a tall man-like figure, covered with shining brown 

 hair, walking erect with a waddling gait, but sometimes ac- 

 celerating his motion with his hands, and occasionally propel- 

 ling himself forward with the bough of a tree.' 1 — " It seems 

 probable that the animal had travelled from some distance to 

 the place where he was found, as his legs were covered with 

 mud up to his knees.'''' * If the quadrupedal attitude be the 

 natural one of the orang-outang on a level surface, is it not 

 rather surprising that he should not have taken to it in the 

 hour of danger ? It is clear, too, that he had walked bipedally 

 through the mud ; for if his arms had been equally marked, 

 (which they would have been if employed as feet) I presume 

 the circumstance would have been mentioned. If it be objec- 

 ted that this is not quite a sequence, since, if the mud was 

 sticky, he would have been more entangled with four hands 

 in it than with two ; still we have the fact of his travelling 

 bipedally over the ground and between the trees, where there 

 was no mud, and where his appearance was, as stated, that " of 

 a tall man-like figure walking erect." The use of a bough or 

 stick to help him in his erect progression is also remarkable. 

 It appears, too, that orangs use the same for defence and of- 

 fence, for the animal of the orang race, described by Wurmb 

 in " the Batavian Transactions" we are told, made a des- 

 perate resistance with the branch of a tree before he was over- 

 powered. 



The appearance of the teeth of the orang would almost 

 lead one to imagine that he may be a carnivorous as well as a 

 fructivorous animal. To speculate further, however, upon 

 that point, in the absence of more certain data, would be idle. 



Should Mr Swinton's orang live long enough, he may be 

 destined to solve an interesting question, upon which, in the 

 present state of our knowledge, it is not easy to come to a sa- 

 tisfactory conclusion, viz. are we to consider Dr Abel's orang 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. see also this Journal, No. viii. p. 194. 



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