ORAN OTAN. 9 



would use it in a proper manner. I was assured, 

 that on shipboard it ran freely about the vessel, 

 played with the sailors, and would go, like them, 

 into the kitchen for its mess. At the approach 

 of night it lay down to sleep, and prepared its bed 

 by shaking well the hay, on which it slept, and 

 putting it in proper order, and, lastly, covering 

 itself warm with the coverlet. One day, seeing 

 the padlock of its chain opened with a key, and 

 shut again, it seized a little bit of stick, and 

 put it into the key-hole, turning it about in 

 all directions, endeavouring to see whether the 

 padlock would open or not. This animal lived 

 seven months in Holland. On its first arrival it 

 had but very little hair, except on its back and 

 arms: but on the approach of winter it became 

 extremely well covered; the hair on the back be- 

 ing three inches in length. The whole animal 

 then appeared of a chesnut colour; the skin of the 

 face, &c. was of a mouse colour, but about the 

 eyes and round the mouth of a dull flesh colour. 



It came from the island of Borneo, and was 

 deposited in the museum of the Prince of Orange. 



Upon the whole, it appears clearly that there 

 are two distinct species of this animal, viz. the 

 Pongo, or great black Oran Otan, which is a native 

 of Africa, and the reddijh brown or chesnut Oran 

 Otan, called the Jocko,, which is a native of 

 Borneo and some other Indian islands. This lat- 

 ter, as appears from a collation of most of the 

 specimens which have been surveyed with the ne- 

 cessary degree of exactness, is distinguished by 



