490 OBANG OUTANG 



former animals, and for the better examining the opinion of the Baron Cu- 

 vier, that it is only the young- one of Wurmb's and consequently of the 

 Sumatra animal; and Lastly, I quoted some notices of very large man- 

 like apes contained in the works of the older travellers, and attempted 

 to determine to which of these the Sumatra Orang should be referred. The 

 essay which I read to the Society was prepared in haste, and from imperfect 

 materials, and although it might perhaps be suited to its principal object 

 that of exciting enquiry, it was certainly unfit for publication. For this 

 reason, and because those who are likely to be chiefly interested in this 

 communication will be better satisfied with facts than opinions, I shall at 

 present limit myself to an account of those particulars of the appearance of 

 the animal when alive which are best authenticated, and of the circum- 

 stances that attended his capture as they have been collected from the per- 

 sons who took him, and conclude with a description of such parts of his 

 body as are preserved in the museum of the Asiatic Society. 



Capture of the Animal. 

 The following short history of the circumstances under which the animal 

 was found, and of the mode of taking him is drawn up from accounts which 

 were furnished to me either directly or indirectly by persons concerned in 

 his capture. A boat party under the command of Messrs. Craygyman and 

 Fish, officers of the brig Mary Anne Sophia having landed to procure water 

 at a place called Ramboom near Touraman on the N. W. coast of Sumatra, 

 on a spot where there was much cultivated ground and but few trees, disco- 

 vered on one of these a gigantic animal of the monkey tribe. On the ap- 

 proach of the party he came to the ground, and when pursued sought refuge 

 in another tree at some distance, exhibiting as he moved, the appearance 

 of a tall manlike figure covered with shining brown hair, walking erect with 

 a waddling gait, but sometimes accelerating his motion with his hands, and 

 occasionally impelling himself forward with the bough of a tree. His 

 motion on the ground was plainly not his natural mode of progression, for 

 even when assisted by his hands or a stick it was slow and vacillating : it 



