72 BORNEO— THE ORANG-UTAN. [chap. iv. 



countenance. Its weight was three pounds nine ounces, 

 its height fourteen inches, and the spread of its arms 

 twenty- three inches. I preserved its skin and skeleton, 

 and in doing so found that when it fell from the tree it 

 must have broken an arm and a leg, which had, however, 

 united so rapidly that I had only noticed the hard swell- 

 ings on the limbs where the irregular junction of the 

 bones had taken place. 



Exactly a week after I had caught this interesting little 

 animal I succeeded in shooting a full-grown male Orang- 

 utan. I had just come home from an entomologising 

 excursion when Charles 1 rushed in out of breath with 

 running and excitement, and exclaimed, interrupted by 

 gasps, " Get the gun, sir, — be quick, — such a large Mias ! " 

 " Where is it ? " I asked, taking hold of my gun as I spoke, 

 which happened luckily to have one barrel loaded with 

 ball. " Close by, sir — on the path to the mines — he can't 

 get away." Two Dyaks chanced to be in the house at the 

 time, so I called them to accompany me, and started off, 

 telling Charley to bring all the ammunition after me as 

 soon as possible. The path from our clearing to the mines 

 led along the side of the hill a little way up its slope, and 

 parallel with it at the foot a w T ide opening had been made for 

 a road, in which several Chinamen were working, so that 

 the animal could not escape into the swampy forest below 

 1 Charles Allen, an English lad of sixteen, accompanied me as an assistant. 





