210 SUMATRA. [chap. vui. 



The other great Mammalia of Sumatra, the elephant and 

 the rhinoceros, are more widely distributed ; but the former 

 is much more scarce than it was a few years ago, and 

 seems to retire rapidly before the spread of cultivation. 

 About Lobo Eaman tusks and bones are occasionally found 

 in the forest, but the living animal is now never seen. 

 The rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sumatranus) still abounds, and 

 I continually saw its tracks and its dung, and once dis- 

 titrbed one feeding, which went crashing away through the 

 jungle, only permitting me a momentary glimpse of it 

 through the dense underwood. I obtained a tolerably 

 perfect cranium, and a number of teeth, which were picked 

 up by the natives. 



Another curious animal, which I had met with in Singa- 

 pore and in Borneo, but which was more abundant here, is 

 the Galeopithecus, or flying lemur. This creature has a 

 broad membrane extending all round its body to the 

 extremities of the toes, and to the point of the rather long 

 tail. This enables it to pass oblicjuely through the air 

 from one tree to another. It is sluggish in its motions, at 

 least by day, going up a tree by short runs of a few feet, 

 and then stopping a moment as if the action was difficult. 

 It rests during the day clinging to the trunks of trees, where 

 its olive or brown fur, mottled with irregular whitish spots 

 and blotches, resembles closely the colour of mottled bark, 

 and no doubt helps to protect it. Once, in a bright 



