404 TWO YEARS IX THE JUNGLE. 



Even tinder the most favorable circumstances, orangs are 

 neither graceful nor active iu their movements. I think we may 

 justly consider them the most helpless of all the quadrumana. 

 Owing to the gi'eat weight of their bodies, and the peculiar struct- 

 ure of their hands, they cannot i-un nimbly, and never dare to spring 

 from one tree to the next. The smaller monkeys gallop madly 

 along the larger branches, with outspread arms, legs, and tail, leap 

 recklessly from the tree-top, go flying through the air for several 

 yards, and fall sprawling and unhurt upon the side or in the leafy 

 top of the next tree. Not so the orang-utan, with his huge, flabby 

 stomach, fleshy thighs, and massive head. His weight, of one hun- 

 dred and twenty to one hundred and sixty pounds, compels him to 

 move slowly and circumspectly so that he may not find himself 

 falling heavily to the ground. Owing to the disproportionate 

 shortness of his legs, his progress depends mostly upon his long, 

 sinewy arms, and very often he goes swinging through a tree- 

 top by their aid alone. I have frequently seen them swing along 

 beneath the large limbs as a gymnast swings along a tight rope, 

 reaching six feet at a stretch. "When passing from one tree to 

 another, he reaches out and gathers in his grasp a number of small 

 branches Lhat he feels sure will sustain his weight then swings 

 himself across. 



Upon the gi'ound the orang is a picture of abject helplessness. 

 In his native forests he is very seldom known to descend to the 

 earth, and so far as my experience goes, I have never seen nor 

 heard of a single instance of the kind. True, he climbs do-svn 

 when thirsty until he can reach the water with his hands, but this 

 occurs where there is no dry land to walk upon. 



The orang-utan is utterly incapable of standing fully erect with- 

 out touching the ground with its hands. I have seen many orangs 

 in caj^tivity, but not one of them ever stood erect upon its hind 

 legs for a single instant, and for orangs to be so represented in 

 drawings or museums is contrary to nature. 



There has been considerable discussion in regard to the maxi- 

 mum size attained by the orang-utan, and its general measure- 

 ments. ]VIi-. A. R Wallace, in his work on the " Malay Archi- 

 pelago," pp. 72 et seq., makes the following statements : 



" I have myself examined the bodies of seventeen freshly-kiUed 

 orangs. Of this extensive series, sixteen were fully adult, nine being 

 males and seven females. The adult males of the large orangs only 

 varied from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2 inches in height, measured 



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