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

IV.] BORNEO—THE ORAXG-UTAX. 41our passage, and sometimes tangled branches and creepers metcompletely across it, and had to be cut away before -we couldget on. It took us two days to reach Semabang, and we hardlysaw a bit of dry land all the way. In the latter part of thejourney I could touch tlie bushes on each side for miles ; andwe were often delayed by the screw-pines (Pandanus), whichgrew abundantly in the water, falling across the stream. Inother places dense rafts of floating grass completely filledup tlie channel, making our journey a constant succession ofdifficulties.Near the landing-place we found a fine house, 250 feet long,raised high above the ground on posts, with a wide verandahand still ^s-ider platform of bamboo in front of it. Almost allthe people, however, were away on some excursion after ediblebirds'-nests or bees'-wax, and there only remained in the housetwo or three old men and women with a lot of children. Themountain or hill was close b}', covered with a complete forest offruit-trees, among which the Durian and ^langusteen were veryabundant ; but the fruit was not yet quite ripe, except a littlehere and there. I spent a week at this place, going out everyday in various directions about the mountain, accompanied bya Malay, who had stayed with me while the other boatmenI'eturned. For three days we found no Orangs, but shot a deerand several monkeys. On the fourth day, however, we found aMias feeding on a very loftj" Durian tree, and succeeded inkilling it, after eight shots. Unfortunately it remained in thetree, hanging by its hands, and we were obliged to leave it andreturn home, as it was several miles off. As I felt pretty sureit would fall during the niglit, I returned to the place early thenext morning, and found it on the ground beneath the tree. Tomy astonishment and pleasure, it appeared to be a difterentkind from any I had yet seen, for although a full-grown male byits fully developed teeth and very large canines, it had no signof tlie lateral protuberance on the face, and was about one-tenthsmaller in all its dimensions than the other adult males. Tlieujjper incisors, however, appeared to be broader than in thelarger species, a character distinguishing the Simla morio ofProfessor Owen, which he had described from the cranium of afemale specimen. As it was too far to carrj^ the animal home, Iset to work and skinned the bodj^ on the spot, leaving tlie head,liands, and feet attached, to be finished at home. This specimenis now in the British Museum.At the end of a week, finding no more Orangs, I i-eturnedhome ; and, taking in a few fresh stores, and this time accompaniedby Charles, went up another branch of the river, verysimilar in character, to a place called Menyille, where therewere several small Dyak houses and one large one. Here tlielanding-place was a bridge of rickety jDoles, over a considerabledistance of water : and I thought it safer to leave my cask ofarrack securely placed in the fork of a tree. To jirevent the