46 THE MAN-LIKE APES I 



history of the ORANG-UTAN extant, is that given 

 in the " Verhandelingen over de Natuurlijke 

 Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche 

 Bezittingen (1839-45)," by Dr. Salomon Miiller 

 and Dr. Schlegel, and I shall base what I have to 

 say upon this subject almost entirely on their 

 statements, adding, here and there, particulars of 

 interest from the writings of Brooke, Wallace, 

 and others. 



The Orang-Utan would rarely seem to exceed 

 four feet in height, but the body is very bulky, 

 measuring two-thirds of the height in circum- 

 ference. 1 



The Orang-Utan is found only in Sumatra and 

 Borneo, and is common in neither of these islands 

 in both of which it occurs always in low, flat 

 plains, never in the mountains. It loves the 

 densest and most sombre of the forests, which 



1 The largest Orang-Utan, cited by Temminck, measured, 

 when standing upright, four feet ; but he mentions having just 

 received news of the capture of an Orang five feet three inches 

 high. Schlegel and Miiller say that their largest old male 

 measured, upright, 1.25 Netherlands " el " ; and from the crown 

 to the end of the toes, 1.5 el; the circumference of the body 

 being about 1 el. The largest old female was 1.09 el high, 

 when standing. The adult skeleton in the College of Surgeons' 

 Museum, if set upright, would stand 3 ft. 6-8 in. from crown to 

 sole. Dr. Humphry gives 3 ft. 8 in. as the mean height of 

 two Orangs. Of seventeen Orangs examined by Mr. Wallace, 

 the largest was 4 ft. 2 in. high, from the heel to the crown of 

 the head. Mr. Spencer St. John, however, in his Life in the 

 Forests of the Far East, tells us of an Orang of "5 ft. 2 in., 

 measuring fairly from the head to the heel," 15 in. across the 

 face, and 12 in. round the wrist. It does not appear, however, 

 Mr. that St. John measured this Orang himself. 



