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



to have been preserved, for no specimen corresponding to 

 these dimensions has yet reached England. 



In a letter from Sir James Brooke, dated October 1857, 

 in which he acknowledges the receipt of my Papers on the 

 Orang, published in the " Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History," he sends me the measurements of a specimen 

 killed by his nephew, which I will give exactly as 1 

 received it : "September 3d, 1867, killed female Orang- 

 utan. Height, from head to heel 4 feet 6 inches. Stretch 

 from fingers to fingers across body, 6 feet 1 inch. Breadth 

 of face, including callosities, 11 inches." Now, in these 

 dimensions, there is palpably one error ; for in every 

 Orang yet measured by any naturalist, an expanse of 

 arms of 6 feet 1 inch corresponds to a height of about 



3 feet 6 inches, while the largest specimens of 4 feet to 



4 feet 2 inches high, always have the extended arms as 

 much as 7 feet 3 inches to 7 feet 8 inches. It is, in fact, 

 one of the characters of the genus to have the arms so 

 long that an animal standing nearly erect can rest its 

 fingers on the ground. A height of 4 feet 6 inches would 

 therefore require a stretch of arms of at least 8 feet ! If it 

 were only 6 feet to that height, as given in the dimensions 

 quoted, the animal would not be an Orang at all, but 

 a new genus of apes, differing materially in habits and 

 mode of progression. But Mr. Johnson, who shot this 

 animal, and who knows Orangs well, evidently considered 



