I THE GIBBONS 37 



believing about these animals, to commence with 

 the best known man-like Apes, the Gibbons and 

 Orangs ; and to make use of the perfectly trust- 

 worthy information respecting them as a sort o( 

 criterion of the probable truth or falsehood oi 

 assertions respecting the others. 



Of the GIBBONS, half a dozen species are found 

 scattered over the Asiatic islands, Java, Sumatra, 

 Borneo, and through Malacca, Siam, Arracan, 

 and an uncertain extent of Hindostan, on the 

 main land of Asia. The largest attain a few 

 inches above three feet in height, from the 

 crown to the heel, so that they are shorter than 

 the other man-like Apes ; while the slenderness 

 of their bodies renders their mass far smaller in 

 proportion even to this diminished height. 



Dr. Salomon Miiller, an accomplished Dutch 

 naturalist, who lived for many years in the East- 

 ern Archipelago, and to the results of whose per- 

 sonal experience I shall frequently have occasion 

 to refer, states that the Gibbons are true moun- 

 taineers, loving the slopes and edges of the hills, 

 though they rarely ascend beyond the limit of 

 the fig-trees. All day long they haunt the tops of 

 the tall trees ; and though, towards evening, they 

 descend in small troops to the open ground, 

 no sooner do they spy a man than they dart 

 up the hill-sides, and disappear in the d^ker 

 valleys. 



All observers testify to the prodigious volume of 



