Mr Grant's account of an Orang-Outangfrom Borneo. 21 



three kinds, (of the orang proper,) nearly approximated as to 

 general similitude, but yet specifically distinct. I am free, 

 therefore, to confess, that though unable to make up my mind 

 fullyfrom the data I have had access to, or even perhaps to 

 give good reasons for so thinking, I find myself rather scepti- 

 cal as to the little orangs seen in Europe and elsewhere having 

 been all young ones of the gigantic race ; or of the individual 

 in Mr Swinton's possession being identical in kind with the 

 large one of Captain Cornfoot, or even of Captain Cornfoot's 

 great orang being identical with Baron Van Wurmb's Pongo. 

 This impression, rather than conviction, however, I venture to 

 mention with great diffidence, when I reflect on the high au- 

 thorities in favour of an opposite opinion. 



Camper conceived the average height of the orang-outang to 

 be about four feet. Is it unreasonble to suppose that there may 

 be at least two kinds, one averaging from seven to eight feet 

 in height, and the other from four to five ? 



The inquiry would no doubt be considerably elucidated by 

 a perfect knowledge of the age of the orangs, as there is much 

 obscurity on the point % nor do I comprehend upon what data 

 it has been asserted, that all the orangs seen in Europe were 

 young individuals, not exceeding three years of age at the ut- 

 most.* How so important a fact came to be so positively as- 

 certained, we are not informed. True, the animal imported to 

 England by Dr Abel was shedding his teeth when he died, 

 giving sufficient evidence of his youth, but not, I conceive, of 

 his exact age. Mr Montgomerie, we have seen, seems inclined 

 to the conclusion, that it was six years old. If this opinion be 

 correct, Mr Swinton's orang, by a parity of reasoning, is about 

 five years old. If, on the other hand, the assertion alluded to 

 be more correctly grounded, the creature is only about two 

 years old. His juvenility is not only demonstrated by the state 

 of his teeth, and the fact of his having two less in each jaw 

 than Dr Abel's, but by the smallness of the genital organs, his 

 less comparative girth, and slenderness of limbs, his docility 

 and activity. 



The analogy between his growth and that of a human being 

 would seem more specious than just. Where are we to look for 



* Griffith's Animal Kingdom. 



