The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

104 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.forest plains in the east of Sumatra where one would naturallyexpect to find it, but is probably confined to a limited region inthe north-west—a part of the island entirely in tlie hands ofV/5 native rulers. The other great ^Mammalia of Sumatra, theelephant and the rhinoceros, are more widely distributed ; butthe former is much more scarce than it was a few years ago, andseems to x'etire rapidly before the spread of cultivation. AboutLobo Eaman tusks and bones are occasionally found in theforest, but the living animal is now never seen. The rhinoceros(Rhinoceros sumatranus) still abounds, and I continually saw itstracts and its dung, and once disturbed one feeding, which wentcrashing awa,y through the jungle, only permitting me amomentary glimpse of it through the dense underwood. I obtaineda tolerably perfect cranium, and a number of teeth, whichwere picked up bj" the natives.Another curious animal, which I had met with in Singaporeand in Borneo, but which was more abundant here, is theGaleopithecus, or flying lemur. This creature has a broadmembrane extending all round its body to the extremities ofthe toes, and to the point of the rather long tail. This enablesit to pass obliquely through the air from one tree to another.It is sluggish in its motions, at least by day, going up a treeby short runs of a few feet, and then stopping a moment as ifthe action was diflicult. It rests during the day clinging to thetrunks of trees, where its olive or brown fur, mottled withirregular whitish spots and blotches, resembles closely thecolour of mottled bark, and no doubt helps to protect it. Once,in a bright twilight, I saw one of these animals run up a trunkin a rather open place, and then glide obliquely through theair to another tree, on which it alighted near its base, andimmediately began to ascend. I paced the distance from theone tree to the other, and found it to be seventy yards ; andthe amount of descent I estimated at not more than thii-ty-fiveor forty feet, or less than one in five. This I think proves thatthe animal must have some power of gniding itself through theair, otlierwise in so long a distance it would have little chanceof alighting exactly upon the trunk. Like the Cuscus of theMoluccas, the Galeopithecus feeds chiefly on leaves, andpossesses a very voluminous stomach and long convolutedintestines. The brain is very small, and the animal possessessuch remarkable tenacity of life, that it is exceedingly diflicultto kill it by any ordinary means. The tail is prehensile, and isprobably made use of as an additional support while feeding.It is said to have only a single young one at a time, and myown observation confirms this statement, for I once shot afemale, with a very small blind and naked little creatureclinging closely to its breast, which was quite bare and muchwrinkled, reminding me of the young of Marsupials, to which itseemed to form a transition. On the back, and extending overthe limbs and membrane, the fur of these animals is short