ORDER QUADRUMANA. 295 



On the Pongo we are in possession of little material infor- 

 mation. The first person who gave a correct description of 

 this animal, was the Baron de Wurmb, whose dissertation 

 on it is to be found in the acts of the Batavian Society. He 

 called it the Pongo, or great orang-outang. The degree and 

 probability of its relationship with this last animal, we have 

 already noticed. As for the Pongo of Buffon, that evidently 

 is an animal merely imaginary, the result rather of his 

 own erroneous conclusions from imperfect statements, than 

 from any foundation of fact. With the true Pongo he was 

 obviously unacquainted. Audebert has given a very com- 

 plete figure of the skeleton of this animal. 



By the conformation of his head, the Pongo would ap- 

 pear to occupy almost the last place in the numerous 

 family of the Simiae. He should stand where our author 

 has placed him between the Mandrills and Alouattes. 

 " What," says M. Geoffroi, " is most remarkable in the 

 bony head of the Simia of Wurmb, is the excessive elonga- 

 tion of the muzzle ; and as this considerable volume of the 

 muzzle cannot be gained but at the expense of the other 

 adjoining parts, we accordingly find that there is scarcely 

 any apparent forehead, that the bony box which contains the 

 brain is uncommonly small, and that the occipital foramen 

 is situated as far as the posterior part of the head. The 

 muzzle, the magnitude of which forms the principal cha- 

 racter of this species is remarkable, moreover, not only by 

 the enormous thickness of the gums, but also by the extra- 

 ordinary size of the canine and incisive teeth, with which 

 they are provided ; the incisors exceed in magnitude those 

 of the Lion, and the canines do not differ much in dimen- 

 sions from those of the same animal. Thus, though their 

 teeth have a general resemblance to the teeth of the other 

 Simiae, we might be tempted in consequence of their mag- 

 nitude to class the animal to which they belong with species 

 the most decidedly carnivorous. There is another consi- 



