Mr Grant's account of an Orang-Outangfrom Borneo. 15 



which died in England as identical in kind with the gigantic 

 one killed by Captain Cornfoot's party in Sumatra; or is the 

 orang now in Mr Swinton's possession a young one of the 

 gigantic race ? 



Mr Montgomerie, if I rightly comprehend, in the following 

 observations, appears inclined to the opinion, that the orangs 

 we usually see are young ones of the gigantic race. 



" In regard to the subject in dispute concerning the identi- 

 ty of the orang-outang of Borneo, the gigantic Sumatran 

 orang, and the Pongo of Wurmb, I have little evidence to 

 bring forward that can be of use in clearing up the matter ; 

 but during my residence at Singapore, I saw at least ten or 

 twelve Borneo orangs, of various ages and sizes. The larg- 

 est, judging from recollection, I should suppose to have been 

 about three feet in length from the crown to the heel. I had 

 also a female in my possession for upwards of a year, during 

 which time she grew up as much as a child would have done 

 in the same period ; but I regret that no measurement was 

 taken to enable me to speak positively to its size at the time 

 of its death, but it was fully higher than the one now in the 

 possession of Mr Swinton. In making a preparation of its 

 cranium, I found the teeth corresponding to the permanent 

 anterior molares of the human subject were quite formed, but 

 had not penetrated the gum. She had not shed any of her 

 milk teeth. It showed no symptoms of catamenia while with 

 me, nor were the mammae at all apparent. 



" I have not been able to ascertain that any measurement 

 was taken of Dr Abel's orang at the time of its death ; but 

 supposing it had gone on to increase in height at the same 

 rate it did from September 181 7 to May 1818, it ought to have 

 been three feet high, and from its great analogy to the human 

 species we may allow it to have been at that time six years of 

 age, and if it increased in the same ratio of four inches a-year, 

 which is actually less than the rate of its growth for the last 

 eighteen months of its existence, it would by the time it had 

 attained its sixteenth year * have been six feet four inches high ; 



* This is allowing a short time for the animal to acquire its full stature. 

 Tall individuals of the human race continue to grow for a much longer 

 period. — Note by Mr M. 



