25 
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 ordi- 
nary 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 magnitude: 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 im believing about these ani- 
mals, to commence with the best known man-like Apes, the 
Gibbons and Orangs; and to make use of the perfectly reli- 
able information respecting them as a sort of criterion of the 
probable truth or falsehood of assertions respecting the others. 
Of the Grpzons, half a dozen species are found scattered 
over the Asiatic islands, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and through 
Malacca, Siam, Arracan, and an uncertain extent of Hin- 
dostan, on the main land of Asia. The largest attain a few 
inches above three feet in height, from the crown to the heel, 
so that they are shorter than the other man-like Apes; while 
the slenderness of their bodies renders their mass far smaller 
in proportion even to this diminished height. 
