TEE HOME OF TEE 0 BANGS. 
03 -: 
he had chosen his place, and how rapidly he stretched out his unwounded arm in every direction- 
breaking off good-sized boughs with the greatest ease, and laying them back across each other, so that in 
a few minutes he had formed a compact mass of foliage, which entirely concealed him from our sight. 
He was evidently going to pass the night here, and would probably get away early the next morning,, 
if not wounded too severely. I therefore tired again several times, in hopes of making him leave his 
nest j but, though 1 felt sure I had hit him, as at each shot he moved a little, he would not go away. 
At length he raised himself up, so that half his body was visible, and then gradually sank down, his 
head alone remaining on the edge of the nest. I now felt sure he was dead, and tried to persuade the 
Chinaman and his companion to cut down the tree ; but it was a very large one, and they had been 
at work all day, and nothing would induce them to attempt it. The next morning, at daybreak, I 
came to the place, and found that the Mias was evidently dead, as his head was visible in exactly the 
same position as before.” 
There is every reason to believe that the Mias, or Orang-utan, is confined to the two great Islands; 
of Sumatra and Borneo, in the former of which, however, it seems to be much more rare. In Borneo 
it has a wide range, inhabiting many districts on the south-west, south-east, north-east, and north-west 
coasts, but appears to be chiefly confined to the low and swampy forests. It seems, at first sight, very 
inexplicable that the Mias should be quite unknown in the Sarawak valley, while it is abundant in 
Sambas, on the west, and Sadong, on the east ; but when we know the habits and mode of life of the 
animal, we see a sufficient reason for this apparent anomaly in the physical features of the Sarawak 
district. Where Mr. Wallace observed the Mias it was where the country is low, level, and swampy, 
and at the same time covered with a lofty virgin forest. Many isolated mountains, on some of which 
the Dyaks have settled, are close by, and are covered with plantations of fruit-trees. These are a 
great attraction to the Mias, which comes to feed on the fruits, but always retires to the swamp 
at night. When the country becomes slightly elevated, and the soil dry, the Mias is no longer go 
be found. For example, in all the lower parts of the Sadong valley it abounds, but as soon as we 
ascend above the limits of the tides, where the country, though still flat, is high enough to be dry,, 
it disappears. Now, the Sarawak valley has this peculiarity : the lower portion, though swampy, is 
not covered with continuous lofty forests, but is principally occupied by the Nipa palm ; and near 
the town of Sarawak, where the country becomes dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, and 
covered witli small patches of virgin forest and much second-growth jungle, on ground which has once 
been cultivated by the Malays or Dyaks. “ Now it seems to me,” writes the same author, “ that a wide 
extent of unbroken and equally lofty virgin forest is necessary to the comfortable existence of these 
animals. Such forests form their open country, where they can roam in every direction, with as much 
facility as tire Indian on the prairie or the Arab on the desert ; passing from tree-top to tree-top without 
ever being obliged to descend upon the earth. The elevated and the drier districts are more frequented 
by man, and are more cut up by clearings and low second-growth jungle. They are not adapted to its 
peculiar mode of progression, and they would be more exposed to danger, and more frequently obliged 
to descend upon the earth in such places. There is probably also a greater variety of fruit in the Mias 
district, the small mountains which rise like islands out of it serving as a sort of gardens or plantations. 
It is a singular and very interesting sight to watch a Mias making his way leisurely through the forest. 
He walks deliberately along some of the larger branches in the semi-erect attitude, which the great length 
of liis arms and the shortness of his legs cause him naturally to assume; and the disproportion between 
these limbs is increased by his walking on his knuckles, not on the palm of the hand, as we should do* 
He seems always to choose those branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree, on approaching 
which he stretches out his long arms, and seizing the opposing boughs, grasps them together with both 
hands, seems to try their strength, and then deliberately swings himself across to the next branch on 
which he walks along as before. He never jumps or springs, or even appears to hurry himself, and 
yet manages to get along almost as quickly as a person can run through the forest beneath. The long 
and powerful arms are of the greatest use to the animal, enabling it to climb easily up the loftiest 
trees, to seize fruits and young leaves from slender boughs which will not bear its weight, and to 
gather leaves and branches with which to form its nest.” 
Mr. Wallace, who described how it forms a nest when wounded, states “that it uses a similar one- 
to sleep in almost every night. This is placed low down, however, on a small tree, not more than from. 
