110 THE NA.TUHAL HISTORY OP 



croachments of civilization. The first is the most 

 probable ; for it is scarcely possible, if ever an inhabi- 

 tant of the coasts, that a solitary individual only 

 should have been observed, during the very long period 

 that this country has been possessed by Europeans, 

 among whom were men most zealous in the pursuit of 

 natural history, and to whom this had been long held 

 up as one of the greatest acquisitions that could be 

 procured. This will appear the less singular when 

 we consider the immense extent of unknown territory^ 

 occupied by forests almost boundless, and of the most 

 impenetrable description, and we may easily conceive 

 that they will possess many tenants, hitherto unseen 

 even to the piercing eyes of their native hunters. The 

 most unaccountable circumstance is, that the young 

 are so frequently met with, while the gigantic parent* 

 have scarcely been perceived ; and, except in the in- 

 stance we have mentioned, exist only in the accounts 

 handed down from family to family. 



We have seen the black orang of Africa to be very 

 local in the extent of its distribution, inhabiting but a 

 small portion of a vast continent. The red orang pos- 

 sesses the same peculiarity in its range, and seems 

 confined to the Islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and to 

 the peninsula of Malacca, inhabiting the immense 

 forests, and rarely appearing on their outskirts. 



Since the arrival, in 1818, of the red orang, figured 

 and so admirably described by Dr Abel, several young 



