74 Borneo — The Orang-Utan. 



6 feet to that height, as given in the dimensions quoted, the 

 animal would not be an orang at all, but a new genus of apes,, 

 differing materially in habits and mode of progression. But 

 Mr. Johnson, who shot this animal, and knows orangs well, 

 evidently considered it to be one ; and we have therefore to 

 judge whether it is more probable that he made a mistake 

 of two feet in the stretch of the arms, or of one foot in the 

 height. The latter error is certainly the easiest to make, 

 and it will bring his animal into agreement, as to propor- 

 tions and size, with all those which exist in Europe. How 

 easy it is to be deceived in the height of these animals is 

 well shown in the case of the Sumatran orang, the skin of 

 which was described by Dr. Clarke Abel. The captain and 

 crew who killed this animal declared, that when alive he ex- 

 ceeded the tallest man, and looked so gigantic that they 

 thought he was seven feet high ; but that, when he was killed 

 and lay upon the ground, they found he was only about 6 

 feet. Now it will hardly be credited that the skin of this 

 identical animal exists in the Calcutta Museum, and Mr. 

 Blyth, the late curator, states " that it is by no means one 

 of the largest size ;" which means that it is about 4 feet 

 high ! 



Having these undoubted examples of error in the dimen- 

 sions of orangs, it is not too much to conclude that Mr. St. 

 John's friend made a similar error of measurement, or rather, 

 perhaps, of memory ; for we are not told that the dimensions 

 were noted down at the time they were made. The only fig- 

 ures given by Mr. St. John on his own authority are that " the 

 head was 15 inches broad by 14 inches long." As my largest 

 male was 1 3|^ broad across the face, measured as soon as the 

 animal was killed, I can quite understand that when the head 

 arrived at Sarawak from the Batang-lupar, after two if not 

 three days' voyage, it was so swollen by decomposition as to 

 measure an inch more than when it was fresh. On the whole, 

 therefore, I think it will be allowed, that up to this time we 

 have not the least reliable evidence of the existence of orangs 

 in Borneo more than 4 feet 2 inches high. 



