30 VERTEBRATA. MAMMALIA. 



but could not be induced to approach within many 

 yards of them. He ran to the same height, and 

 uttered the same sounds on seeing some men bathing 

 and splashing in the sea, and since his arrival in 

 England has shown nearly the same degree of fear, 

 at the sight of a live tortoise." * 



The same writer has given a very interesting nar- 

 rative of the capture of an adult Orang-otan, which 

 was of gigantic proportions. This animal was dis- 

 covered by the boat's crew of a merchant ship, at a 

 place called Ramboom near Touraman, on the north- 

 west coast of Sumatra, on a spot where there were 

 a few trees on a piece of cultivated ground. It was 

 evident that he had come from a distance, for his 

 legs were covered with mud up to the knees, and 

 the natives were entirely unacquainted with him. 

 On the approach of the boat's crew, he came down 

 from the tree in which he was discovered, and made 

 for a clump at some distance, exhibiting as he moved 

 the appearance of a tall, man-like figure, covered 

 with shining brown hair, walking erect, with a 

 waddling gait, but sometimes accelerating his motion 

 with his hands, and occasionally impelling himself 

 forward by the bough of a tree. His motion on the 

 ground was evidently not his natural mode of pro- 

 gression, for even when assisted by his hands, or a 

 stick, it was slow and vacillating ; it was necessary 

 to see him amongst the trees to estimate his strength 

 and agility. On being driven to a small clump he 

 gained by one spring a very lofty branch, and bound- 

 * " Narrative of a Journey in China," &c., p. 325. 



