210 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



of Tyson and from the Orang of Tulpius by its peculiar 

 colour and its long toes, but also by its whole external 

 form. Its arms, its hands, and its feet are longer, while the 

 thumbs, on the contrary, are much shorter, and the great 

 toes much smaller in proportion." * And again, " The true 

 Orang, that is to say, that of Asia, that of Borneo, is con- 

 sequently not the Pithecus, or tailless Ape, which the Greeks, 

 and especially Galen, have described. It is neither the 

 Pongo nor the Jocko, nor the Orang of Tulpius, nor the 

 Pigmy of Tyson, it is an animal of a peculiar species, as I 

 shall prove in the clearest manner by the organs of voice 

 and the skeleton in the following chapters " (1. c. p. 64). 



A few years later, M. Radermacher, who held a high 

 office in the Government of the Dutch dominions in India, 

 and was an active member of the Batavian Society of Arts 

 and Sciences, published, in the second part of the Trans- 

 actions of that Society,t a Description of the Island of 

 Borneo, which was written between the years 1779 and 

 1781, and, among much other interesting matter, con- 

 tains some notes upon the Orang. The small sort of 

 Orang-Utan, viz. that of Vosmaer and of Edwards, he 

 says, is found only in Borneo, and chiefly about Banjer- 

 massing, Mampauwa, and Landak. Of these he had seen 

 some fifty during his residence in the Indies ; but none 

 exceeded 2 feet in length. The larger sort, often regarded 

 as chimara, continues Radermacher, would perhaps long 

 have remained so, had it not been for the exertions of the 

 Resident at Rembang, M. Palm, who, on returning from 

 Landak towards Pontiana, shot one, and forwarded it to 

 Batavia in spirit, for transmission to Europe. 



Palm's letter describing the capture runs thus : " Here- 

 with I send your Excellency, contrary to all expectation 

 (since long ago I offered more than a hundred ducats to 

 the natives for an Orang-Utan of four or five feet high) an 

 Orang which I heard of this morning about eight o'clock. 

 For a long time we did our best to take the frightful beast 

 alive in the dense forest about half way to Landak. We 

 forgot even to eat, so anxious were we not to let him escape ; 

 but it was necessary to take care he did not revenge himself, 

 as he kept continually breaking off heavy pieces of wood 

 and green branches, and dashing them at us. This game 



* Camper, CEuvres, i. p. 56. 



t Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap. Tweede 

 DeeL Derde Druk. 1826. 



