218 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



reserved for the Chimpanzees, and Gorilla for the Eng<5- 

 ena or Pongo. 



Sound knowledge respecting the habits and mode of life 

 of the man-like Apes has been even more difficult of attain- 

 ment than correct information regarding their structure. 



Once in a generation, a Wallace may be found physi- 

 cally, mentally, and morally qualified to wander unscathed 

 through the tropical wilds of America and of Asia ; to form 

 magnificent collections as he wanders ; and withal to 

 think out sagaciously the conclusions suggested by his 

 collections : but, to the ordinary explorer or collector, the 

 dense forests of equatorial Asia and Africa, which constitute 

 the favourite habitation of the Orang, the Chimpanzee, 

 and the Gorilla, present difficulties of no ordinary mag- 

 nitude : and the man who risks his life by even a short visit 

 to the malarious shores of those regions may well be excused 

 if he shrinks from facing the dangers of the interior ; if he 

 contents himself with stimulating the industry of the better 

 seasoned natives, and collecting and collating the more or 

 less mythical reports and traditions with which they are too 

 ready to supply him. 



In such a manner most of the earlier accounts of the habits 

 of the man-like Apes originated ; and even now a good 

 deal of what passes current must be admitted to have no 

 very safe foundation. The best information we possess 

 Is that, based almost wholly on direct European testimony 

 respecting the Gibbons ; the next best evidence relates to 

 the Orangs ; while our knowledge of the habits of the 

 Chimpanzee and the Gorilla stands much in need of 

 support and enlargement by additional testimony from 

 instructed European eye-witnesses. 



It will therefore be convenient in endeavouring to form 

 a notion of what we are justified in believing about these 

 animals, to commence with the best known man-like 

 Apes, the Gibbons and Orangs ; and to make use of the 

 perfectly reliable information respecting them as a sort of 

 criterion of the probable truth or falsehood of assertions 

 repecting 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 



