144 Sumatra. 



ably larger, and differs from them by having the two first fin- 

 gers of the feet united together, nearly to the end, whence its 

 Latin name, Siaraanga syndactyla. It moves much more slow- 

 ly than the active Hylobates, keeping lower down in trees, and 

 not indulging in such tremendous leaps ; but it is still very 

 active, and by means of its immense long arms, five feet six 

 inches across in an adult about three feet high, can swing it- 

 self along among the trees at a great rate. I purchased a 

 small one, which had been caught by the natives and tied up 

 so tightly as to hurt it. It was rather savage at first, and 

 tried to bite ; but when we had released it and given it two 

 poles under the veranda to hang upon, securing it by a short 

 cord, running along the pole with a ring, so that it could move 

 easily, it became more contented, and would swing itself about 

 with great rapidity. It ate almost any kind of fruit and rice, 

 and I was in hopes to have brought it to England, but it died 

 just before I started. It took a dislike to me at first, which 

 I tried to get over by feeding it constantly myself. One day, 

 however, it bit me so sharply Avhile giving it food that I lost 

 patience and gave it rather a severe beating, which I regretted 

 afterward, as from that time it disliked me more than ever. 

 It would allow my Malay boys to play with it, and for hours 

 together would swing by its arms from pole to pole and on 

 to the rafters of the veranda with so much ease and rapidity 

 that it was a constant source of amusement to us. When I 

 returned to Singapore it attracted great attention, as no one 

 had seen a siamang alive before, although it is not uncommon 

 in some parts of the Malay Peninsula. 



As the orang-utan is known to inhabit Sumatra, and was 

 in fact first discovered there, I made many inquiries about it ; 

 but none of the natives had ever heard of such an animal, nor 

 could I find any of the Dutch officials who knew any thing 

 about it. We may conclude, therefore, that it does not inhab- 

 it the great forest-plains in the east of Sumatra where one 

 would naturally expect to find it, but is probably confined to 

 a limited region in the north-Avest — a i:)art of the island entire- 

 ly in the hands of native rulers. The other great Mammalia 

 of Sumatra, the elephant and the rhinoceros, are more widely 

 distributed ; but the former is much more scarce than it was 

 a few years ago, and seems to retire rapidly before the spread 



