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

IV. 1BORNEO—THE ORANG-UTAK 43the Mias tumbling headlong down. 1 was exceedingly struckby the ingenuity of tliis mode of climbing, and the admirablemanner in which the peculiar properties of the bamboo weremade available. The ladder itself was perfectly safe, since ifany one peg were loose or faulty, and gave way, the strain wouldbe thrown on several othei\s above and below it. I now understoodthe use of the line of bamboo pegs sticking in trees, whichI had often seen, and wondered for what purpose they couldhave been put there. This animal was almost identical in sizeand appearance with the one I had obtained at Semabang, andwas the only other male specimen of the Simla morio which Iobtained. It is now in the Derby Museum.I afterwards shot two adult females and two young ones ofdifferent ages, all of which I preserved. One of the females,with several young ones, was feeding on a Durian tree with unripefruit ; and as soon as slie saw us she began breaking offbranches and the great spiny fruits with every appearance ofrage, causing such a shower of missiles as effectually kept usfrom apiDroaching too near the tree. This habit of throwingdown branches wiien irritated has been doubted, but I have, ashere narrated, observed it myself on at least three separateoccasions. It was however always the female Mias who behavedin this way, and it may be that the male, trusting more to hisgreat strength and his powerful canine teeth, is not afraid ofany other animal, and does not want to drive them away, whilethe parental instinct of the female leads her to adopt this modeof defending herself and her young ones.In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I wasmuch troubled by the Dyak dogs, which, being always kept ina state of semi starvation, are ravenous for animal food. I hada great ii'on pan, in which I boiled the bones to make skeletons,and at night I covered this over with boards, and put heavystones upon it ; but the dogs managed to remove these and carriedaway the greater part of one of my specimens. On anotheroccasion they gnawed away a good deal of the uppe^' leather ofmy strong boots, and even ate a piece of my mosquito-curtain,where some lamp-oil had been spilt over it some weeks before.On our return down the stream, Ave had the fortune to fall inwith a very old male Mias, feeding on some low trees growing inthe water. The country was flooded for a long distance, but sofull of trees and stum])s that the laden boat could not be got inamong them, and if it could have been we should only havefrightened the Mias away. I thei'efore got into the water, whichwas nearly up to my waist, and waded on till I was near enoughfor a shot. The difhculty then was to load my gun again, for Iwas so deep in the water that I could not hold the gun slopingenough to pour the powder in. I therefore had to search for ashallow place, and after several shots under these trying circumstances,I was delighted to see the monstrous animal roll overinto the water. I now towed him after me to the stream, but the