ctiAP. IV.] mRORS OF MEASUREMmi. 



63 



Omng, published in the " Annalg ami Magazine of Natural 

 Histfvrj'," he sends me the measurements of a specimen 

 killed hy his nephew, which I will give exactly a3 I 

 received "it: " September 3d » 1807, killed female Orang- 

 utan. Height, iVunx head to heel, 4 feet (> inches. Stretch 

 from fingers to fingers across body, 6 feet 1 inch. Breadth 

 of face, includinfj callosities, 11 inches." Now, in these 

 dimensions, there ia palpaV)iy one eiTor; for in every 

 Oraug yet measured by any naturalist, an expanse of 

 urijis of 0 feet 1 inch corresponds to a height of about 



3 feet 6 inches, while the krgest specimens of 4 feet to 



4 feet 2 inches high, always have the extended arms as 

 much as 7 feet 3 inches to 7 feet 8 inches. It is, in fact, 

 one of the characters of the genus to have the arms so 

 long that an animal standing nearly erect can rest its 

 fingers on the ground. A height of 4 feet 6 inclies would 

 therefore require a stretch of arms of at least 8 feet ! If it 

 were only 6 feet to that height, as given in the dimensions 

 quoted, the annual would not be an Orang at all, but 

 a new genus of apes, diOcring materially in habits and 

 mode of progi'ossion. But Mr. Johnson, who shot this 

 animal, and who knows Onmgs well, evidently considered 

 it to be one ; and we have therefore to judge whether it 

 is more proljable that he made a mistake of two feet 

 in the stretch of the arms, or of cm foot hi the heif^ht. 

 The latter error is certainly the easiest to make, and it 

 will bring his animal into agreement, as to proportions 

 and size, with all those which exist in Europe. How easy 

 it is to be deceived in the height of these animals is well< 

 shown in the case of the Sumalran Orang, the skin of 

 which was described by Dr. Clarke Abel The captain 

 and crew -who killed this animal declared, that when 

 alive he exceeded the tallest man, and looked so gigantic 

 that they thought he was 7 feet high j but that, when be 

 was killed and lay npon the ground, they found he was 

 only alwut li feet. Now it will hardly be credited that 

 the skin of this identical animal exists in the Calcutta 

 Museum, and Mr. Blyth, tlie late curator, states '* that 

 it is by no means one of the largest size ; " which means 

 that it is about 4 feet high ! 



Having these undoubted examples of error in the 



