MAMxMALOGY. 



an erect position might become habitual to him, but in all his peram- 

 bulations, instead of resting firmly upon the sole or palm of the foot , 

 he trod upon the ground only with the exterior edge of the feet. 

 We have very lately seen a series of Chinese drawings, in which the 

 adult male, the female, and the young Orang-Outang are all three 

 represented perfectly erect, like human beings, the male bearing a 

 sword in his hand, like an armed man, the female and young carrying 

 a store of the fruits of the forest for their subsistence ^. This deli- 

 neation seems to prove that those animals are accustomed to walk in 

 an erect position when they have occasion to move over a considerable 

 level space, but it is very probable that they reside among the trees 

 of the mountain forests chiefly, and have little occasion to traverse the 

 open plains. From its mode of treading upon the ground and the 

 greater facility with which it ascends trees, it is perfectly evident 

 the feet are scansorial or formed for climbing rather than for 

 walking ; and this persuasion is confirmed by the incuryate disposition 

 of the bones of the foot in all the skeletons we have examined. From 

 our own observations on the manners of the living animal, the erect 

 posit ion of this creature never appeared to more advantage than 

 when ascending by means of the pendant ropes to his hammock, and 

 we have no doubt, from every movement of the living animal, as well 

 as from the structure of the foot developed in the skeleton, that when 

 it has firmly grasped an erect or inclining branch of a tree, it can 

 support itself with perfect ease in an erect or inclining position, an 

 advantage of no small importance to its mode of life, since while 

 standing upon one branch it can gather the fruits of others that im- 

 pend at a distance over its head, without being at the trouble of 

 mounting higher. 



See plate 59 of the present work. 



