Errors of Measurement. 73 



Schlegel and Mtiller, the largest old male was 4 feet 1 inch, 

 and the largest skeleton in the Calcutta Museum was, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Blyth, 4 feet lA- inch. My specimens were all 

 from the north-west coast of Borneo, those of the Dutch from 

 the west and south coasts ; and no specimen has yet reached 

 Europe exceeding these dimensions, although the total num- 

 ber of skins and skeletons must amount to over a hundred. 



Strange to say, however, several persons declare that they 

 have measured orangs of a much larger size. Temminck, in 

 his monograph of the orang, says that he has just received 

 news of the capture of a specimen 5 feet 3 inches high. Un- 

 fortunately, it never seems to have reached Holland, for noth- 

 ing has since been heard of any such animal. Mr. St. John, 

 in his "Life in the Forests of the Far East," vol. ii. p. 237, 

 tells us of an orang shot by a friend of his which was 5 feet 

 2 inches from the heel to the top of the head, the arm 17 

 inches in girth, and the wrist 12 inches! The head alone 

 was brought to Sarawak, and Mr. St. John tells us that he 

 assisted to measure this, and that it was 15 inches broad by 

 1 4 long. Unfortunately, even this skull appears not to have 

 been preserved, for no specimen corresponding to these di- 

 mensions has yet reached England. 



In a letter from Sir James Brooke, dated October, 1857, 

 in which he acknowledges the receipt of my papers on the 

 orang, published in the " Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History," he sends me the measurements of a specimen killed 

 by his nephew, which I will give exactly as I received it : 

 "September 3d, 1867, killed female orang-utan. Height, 

 from head to heel, 4 feet 6 inches; stretch from fingers to 

 fingers across body, 6 feet 1 inch ; breadth of face, including 

 callosities, 11 inches." Now in these dimensions there is 

 palpably one error ; for in every orang yet measured by any 

 naturalist, an expanse of arms of 6 feet 1 inch corresponds to 

 a height of about 3 feet 6 inches, while the largest specimens 

 of 4 feet to 4 feet 2 inches high always have the extended 

 arms as much as 7 feet 3 inches to 7 feet 8 inches. It is, in 

 fact, one of the characters of the genus to have the arms so 

 long that an animal standing nearly erect can rest its fingers 

 on the ground. A height of 4 feet 6 inches would therefore 

 •require a stretch of arms of at least 8 feet ! If it were only 



