SIR WILLIAM JAKDINE ON MONKEYS. 



453 



the thumb is combined with that of the fore and middle linger — a combination so 

 important in numerous delicate operations.' 



" The upper extremity approaches much nearer to the human form, and in its 

 similarity points out the unfitness of these animals for a constant quadruped 

 motion. The inferior structure of the hands, and particularly the thumbs, show 

 them fitted for grasping alone, and incapable of performing any nice mechanical 

 operation, while the great comparative length indicates their utility in climbing, 

 and therefore their fitness for an arboreal life." 



It appears to us not a little singular, seeing that Sir William 

 Jardine thus unequivocally and justly shows there could be no passage 

 from the orang-outang to man by means of ages of gradual improve- 

 ment — (a most absurd fancy, though extensively promulgated) ; yet 

 in other parts of his work he uses the very terms and language of 

 those who adopt this wild opinion, the terms and language namely of 

 the Lamarckian School, as modified by Mac Leay into what is called 

 the circular system. We shall not stop at present to point out the 

 tendency of this highly objectionable language, but refer to the In- 

 troduction to the second edition of Montagu's Ornithological Dic- 

 tionary for ample details, while we pursue the more pleasant task of 

 selecting what we can better approve of from the interesting details 

 with which the volume abounds. We dip at random, and find the 

 following account of the hoolock {Hylobates Hoolock, Harlow), from 

 a letter of Dr. Burrough. 



" The specimens," says the Doctor, " of the oureng-outang, or Gibbons, fur- 

 nished you, were obtained by me during my late excursion into the interior of 

 Bengal. They were presented to me by Captain Alexander Davidson, of the 

 Honourable East India Company, stationed at Goalpara, situate on the Bur- 

 rampooter river, in Assam. This district of country was formerly attached to 

 the Burmese Empire, but at present is in possession of the East India Com- 

 pany, and constitutes the north-eastern limits of their territory in this quarter. 



" The ourang, of which I am now to speak, called by the Assamese ' hoolock,' 

 is to be met with on the Garrow Hills, in the vicinity of Goalpara, between 

 latitudes 25° and 28° north ; and the specimens brought to this country by me 

 were taken within a few miles of the town of Goalpara. The full grown one, 

 which at this time you have prepared, was in my possession, alive, from the 

 month of January to May, when it died, from a blow it received across the lumbar 

 region, inadvertently inflicted with a small stick by one of my servants at Cal- 

 cutta. They inhabit more particularly the lower hills, not being able to endure 

 the cold of those ranges of the Garrows of more than 400 or 500 feet elevation. 

 Their food, in the wild state, consists, for the most part, of fruits common only 

 to the jungle in this district of country ; and they are particularly fond of the seeds 

 and fruits of that sacred tree of India, called the Peopul-tree, and which, on the 

 Garrow Hills, attains a very large size, They likewise take of some species of 

 grass, and also the tender twigs and leaves of the peopul and other trees, which 



VOL. I. NO. X. (OCTOBER, 1833.) L L 



