THE MAJSr-LIKE APES. 45 



certainly sometliing more than instinct in tliat action : lie 

 evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong 

 both by his first and last actions — and what is reason if 

 that is not an exercise of it ? " 



The most elaborate account of the natural history of 

 the Oeang-Utan extant, is that given in the " Yerhande- 

 lingen over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis der JNTeder- 

 landsche overzeesche Bezittingen (1839-45)," by Dr. Sal- 

 omon Miiller and Dr. Schlegel, and I shall base what I 

 have to say upon this subject almost entirely on their 

 statements, adding, here and there, particulars of interest 

 from the writings of Brooke, Wallace, and others. 



The Orang-Utan would rarely seem to exceed four feet 

 in height, but the body is very bulky, measuring two- 

 thirds of the height in circumference.^ 



The Orang-Utan is found only in Sumatra and Bor- 

 neo, and is common in neither of these islands — in both 

 of which it occurs always in low, flat plains, never in the 

 mountains. It loves the densest and most sombre of the 

 forests, which extend from the sea-shore inland, and thus 

 is found only in the eastern half of Sumatra, where alone 



* The largest Orang-IJtan, cited by Temminck, measured, when standing 

 upright, four feet ; but be mentions having just received news of the capture 

 of an Orang five feet three inches high. Schlegel and Miiller say that their 

 largest old male measured, upright, 1.25 Netherlands "el;" and from the 

 crown to the end of the toes, 1.5 el; the circumference of the body being 

 about 1 el. The largest old female was 1.09 el high, when standing. The 

 adult skeleton in the College of Surgeons' Museum, if set upright, would 

 stand 3 feet 6-8 in. from crown to sole. Dr. Humphry gives 3 ft. 8 in. as the 

 mean height of two Orangs. Of seventeen Orangs examined by Mr. Wallace, 

 the largest was 4 ft. 2 in. high, from the heel to the crown of the head. Mr. 

 Spencer St. John, however, in his " Life in the Forests of the Far East," tells 

 us of an Orang of " 5 ft. 2 in., measuring fairly from the head to the heel," 

 15 in. across the face, and 12 in. round the wrist. It does not appear, how- 

 BYer, that Mr. St. John measured this Orang himself. 



