THE MAN-LIKE APES. 49 



are not expanded like those of the apes which possess cal- 

 losities, but are more like those of man. 



An Orang climbs so slowly and cautiously,* as, in this 

 act, to resemble a man more than an ape, taking great 

 care of his feet, so that injury of them seems to affect him 

 far more than it does other apes. Unlike the Gibbons, 

 whose forearms do the greater part of the w r ork, as they 

 swing from branch to branch, the Orang never makes 

 even the smallest jump. In climbing, he moves alter- 

 nately one hand and one foot, or after having laid fast 

 hold with the hands, he draws up both feet together. In 

 passing from one tree to another, he always seeks out a 

 place where the twigs of both come close together, or in- 

 terlace. Even when closely pursued, his circumspection 

 is amazing : he shakes the branches to see if they will bear 

 him, and then bending an overhanging bough down by 

 throwing his weight gradually along it, he makes a bridge 

 from the tree he wishes to quit to the next.f 



On the ground the Orang always goes laboriously and 

 shakily, on all fours. At starting he will run faster than 

 a man, though he may soon be overtaken. The very long 

 arms which, when he runs, are but little bent, raise the 

 body of the Orang remarkably, so that he assumes much 

 the posture of a very old man bent down by age, and 

 making his way along by the help of a stick. In walking, 

 the body is usually directed straight forward, unlike the 

 other apes, which run more or less obliquely ; except the 

 Gibbons, who in these, as in so many other respects, de- 

 part remarkably from their fellows. 



* " They are the slowest and least active of all the monkey tribe, and their 

 motions are surprisingly awkward and uncouth." Sir James Brooke, in the 

 "Proceedings of the Zoological Society," 1841. 



f Mr. Wallace's account of the progression of the Orang almost exactly 

 corresponds with this. 

 3 



