THE MAN-LIKE APES. 27 



ino- off heavy pieces of wood and green branches, and 

 dashing them at us. This game lasted till four o'clock in 

 the afternoon, when we determined to shoot him ; in 

 which I succeeded very well, and indeed better than I ever 

 shot from a boat before ; for the bullet went just into the 

 side of his chest, so that he was not much damaged. We 

 got him into the prow still living, and bound him fast, 

 and next morning he died of his wounds. All Pontiana 

 came on board to see him when we arrived." Palm gives 

 his height from the head to the heel as 49 inches. 



A very intelligent German officer, Baron Yon Wurmb, 

 who at this time held a post in the Dutch East India ser- 

 vice, and was Secretary of the Batavian Society, studied 

 this animal, and his careful description of it, entitled 

 " Beschrijving van der Groote Borneosche Orang-outang 

 of de Oost-Indische Pongo," is contained in the same vol- 

 ume of the Batavian Society's Transactions. After Yon 

 Wurmb had drawn up his description he states, in a letter 

 dated Batavia, Feb. 18, 1781,* that the specimen was sent 

 to Europe in brandy to be placed in the collection of the 

 Prince of Orange ; " unfortunately," he continues, " we 

 hear that the ship has been wrecked." Yon Wurmb died 

 in the course of the year 1781, the letter in which this 

 passage occurs being the last he wrote ; but in his posthu- 

 mous papers, published in the fourth part of the Transac- 

 tions of the Batavian Society, there is a brief description, 

 with measurements, of a female Pongo four feet high. 



Did either of these original specimens, on which Yon 

 Wurmb's descriptions are based, ever reach Europe ? It 

 is commonly supposed that they did ; but I doubt the fact. 

 For, appended to the memoir " De l'Ourang-outang," in 

 the collected edition of Camper's works, Tome I., pp. 



* " Briefe des Herrn v. Wurmb und des H. Baron von Wollzogen. 

 Gotha, 1794 " 



