64 Borneo — The Orang-Utan. 



sage, and sometimes tangled branches and creepers met 

 completely across it, and had to be cut away before we could 

 get on. It took us two days to reach Semabang, and we 

 hardly saw a bit of dry land all the way. In the latter part 

 of the journey I could touch the bushes on each side for 

 miles, and we were often delayed by the screw-pines (Pan- 

 danus), which grew abundantly in the water, falling across 

 the stream. In other places dense rafts of floating grass 

 completely filled up the channel, making our journey a con- 

 stant succession of difiiculties. 



Near the landing-place we found a fine house, 250 feet 

 long, raised high above the ground on posts, with a wide 

 veranda and still wider platform of bamboo in front of it. 

 Almost all the people, however, were away on some excur- 

 sion after edible bii-ds'-nests or bees-wax, and there only re- 

 mained in the house two or three old men and women with 

 a lot of children. The mountain or hill was close by, cover- 

 ed with a complete forest of fruit-trees, among which the 

 durion and mangosteen were very abundant ; but the fruit 

 was not yet quite ripe, excejDt a li,ttle here and there. I spent 

 a week at this place, going out every day in various direc- 

 tions about the mountain, accompanied by a Malay, who had 

 staid with me while the other boatmen returned. For three 

 days we found no orangs, but shot a deer and several monk- 

 eys. On the fourth day, however, we found a mias feeding 

 on a very lofty durion-tree, and succeeded in killing it after 

 eight shots. IJnfortunately it remained in the tree, hanging 

 by its hands, and we were obliged to leave it and return 

 home, as it was several miles off. As I felt pretty sure it 

 would fall during the night, I returned to the jDlace early the 

 next morning, and found it on the ground beneath the tree. 

 To my astonishment and jjleasure, it appeared to be a difier- 

 ent kind from any I had yet seen ; for although a full-grown 

 male, by its fully developed teeth and very large canines, it 

 had no sign of the lateral protuberance on the face, and was 

 about one-tenth smaller in all its dimensions than the other 

 adult males. The upper incisors, however, appeared to be 

 broader than in the larger species, a character distinguishing 

 the Simla morio of Professor Owen, which he had desci'ibed 

 from the cranium of a female specimen. As it was too far 



