THE ORANG. 309 



gorilla. The gibbons are nearest to the monkeys; they are 

 little less than a metre (3 feet) in height, and are very 

 slender, with very long arms, so that they are rapid, agile 

 climbers, also running over the ground with ease and 

 rapidity; when standing erect the fingers touch the ground; 

 only the thumbs and great toes have true nails, in all the 

 higher apes the nails of all the digits being flattened; the 

 spinal column is nearly straight; they have fourteen jiairs 

 of ribs and eighteen dorso-lumbar vertebi-ae, there being in 

 the other apes usually seventeen, as in man. Tlie siamang 

 lives in the forests of Sumatra; others inhabit Java, Borneo, 

 Cambogia, etc. 



The orang-outang inhabits the low swampy forests of 

 Sumatra and Borneo, being confined to those two islands; 

 it is 1.38 metres* (4|-5 feet) high; it has twelve pairs of 

 ribs, the same number as in man; the arms are very long, 

 stretching 7 feet 9 inches, and reaching the ground, so that 

 in walking they rest on their knuckles, swinging the body 

 through their long arms as if walking on crutches; their 

 posture is only partially erect. The forehead is less strongly 

 marked than in the other apes, sliowing better the shape 

 of the skull. The volume of the brain, both of the orang 

 and chimpanzee, is about twenty-six or twenty-seven cubic 

 inches. The following table will show, according to 

 Wyman, the relative capacity of the skull in the different 

 apes as compared with man: 



The average capacity of the Caucasian skull is 91-92 cubic in. 

 " " " 7 African " 85 " 



" " " Australian " 75-79 " 



« " " Gorilla " 29 to near 



35 cubic in. 

 "■ " " Chimpanzee " 26 " 



« " " Orang " 25 



* Wallace says that the orang of Borneo never exceeds 4 feet 

 2 inches in height. Its native name is Mm. (" The Malay Archi- 

 pelago.") 



