16 Mr Grant's account of an Orang-Outang from Borneo. 



and I have, therefore, little difficulty in bringing myself to be- 

 lieve the gigantic orang of Sumatra to be the adult of this 

 species ; but I should consider the cheek pouches and posterior 

 callosities of Wurmb's Pongo, as well as its colour, peculiarities 

 sufficient to distinguish it from either the Borneo or Sumatran 

 orang. 



" During Sir Stamford Raffles' last visit to Singapore, he 

 sent over to Borneo a country-born Frenchman, (a native I 

 believe of Chandernagore,) for the purpose of collecting sub- 

 jects of natural history. Amongst others which he brought 

 was the skull of a large ape, said to be that of an adult orang- 

 outang. It was certainly the skull of an aged animal, judging 

 from the complete ossification and almost obliteration of the 

 sutures ; but on comparing it with the cranium of the young 

 female, which died while in my possession, I was inclined to 

 question the identity of the animals to which they belonged ; 

 for after making every allowance for disparity of age, there 

 was a much greater difference of shape between the old and 

 young than of any other animal which has come under my 

 observation ; the facial angle in the large one being many 

 degrees more acute, and the bones of the face bearing a much 

 greater proportion in size to those of the cranium than in the 

 smaller. The skull was more compressed laterally, and the 

 frontal arch less full and prominent; the lower jaw of the 

 larger was also of amazing strength, and deeper proportionally 

 than in the smaller. The teeth were at least twice the size 

 and strength of the largest human ones I ever saw. The 

 canine teeth were more elongated than in the human species, 

 but not so much so as those of carnivorous animals.* The 

 space which the zygomatic arch enclosed was very great, and 

 the temporal muscle must have been of immense size, and 

 would enable the animal to make most forcible use of its 

 enormous teeth ; — the action of this muscle would no doubt 

 tend to compress the cranium laterally. I feel very much in- 

 clined to believe that this must have been a skull of the species 

 which Wurmb calls the Pongo, although it was not positively 



* The canine teeth and incisors of the gigantic orang killed by Captain 

 Cornfoot's party were as large, or larger rather than those of a lion. This 

 was also the case in Wurmb s orang. 



