250 CLASS MAMMALIA', 



9. The habitat of both appears to be the same. 



Should these animals eventually be identified, it will 

 place in a still more ridiculous light, the grave surmises of 

 soi-disant philosophers, who have alarmed the rest of man- 

 kind with the representations of their relationship to the 

 anthropomorphous tribes, for the Pongo seems as little 

 like a man as the most brutal of the baboons. 



Of the Chimpanse our accounts as yet are remarkably im- 

 perfect, and often entirely unworthy of credit. It would be 

 taking up the reader's time to little purpose to enter mi- 

 nutely into the details which have been so liberally commu- 

 nicated to us on this subject by travellers, nor indeed have 

 we space to repeat the oft told tales of wonder, to be found 

 in the volumes of voyages and travels re-echoed in the acknow- 

 ledged or unacknowledged plagiarisms of subsequent copy- 

 ists, even if we had the inclination to transplant these exotics 

 once more into the present pages. The Chimpanse, like the 

 Orang Outang, with whose history it has been very generally 

 confounded, has proved a copious source of the marvellous to 

 those whose interest or whose pleasure led them to cater for 

 the indiscriminating and importunate appetite of credulity. 

 It appears to have been, (as far indeed as there was any 

 existing foundation for such a being,) the homo troglodytes 

 of Linnaus. It is impossible to ascertain from his descrip- 

 tion whether he means to designate an animal or a man. 

 He also calls him the homo nocturnus, and attributes to him 

 many of the peculiarities of the Albino variety of the human 

 race. Other parts of his description correspond with such 

 particulars as are known of the Chimpanse, but disfigured 

 considerably by inconsistency and fable. 



From all that we do know of this animal, it should seem 

 that our author, instead of placing him the last in the sub- 

 genus of the Orangs, ought to have ranked him at the head 

 of thequadrumana: at least, if a closer approximation to the 

 external traits of humanity entitle him to that distinction. 

 Both in face and form the Chimpanse is more anthropo- 



