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

44 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.Malays objected to have tlie animal put into the boat, and hewas so heavy that I could not do it without their help. I lookedabout for a place to skin him, but not a bit of dry ground was tobe seen, till at last I found a clumj) of two or three old trees andstumjDs, between which a few feet of soil had collected just abovethe water, and which was just large enough for us to drag theanimal upon it. I first measured him, and found him to be byfar the largest I had yet seen, for, though the standing heightwas the same as the others (4 feet 2 inches), yet the outstretchedarms were 7 feet 9 inches, which was six inches more than theprevious one, and the immense broad face was 13^ inches wide,whereas the widest I had hithertoseen was only llf inches. Thegirth of the body was 3 feet Ti inches. I am inclined to believe,therefore, that the length and strength of the arms, and the"v\-idth of the face, continues increasing to a very great age, whilethe standing height, from the sole of the foot to the crown of thehead, rarely if e^er exceeds 4 feet 2 inches.As this was the last ]\Iias I shot, and the last time I saw anadult living animal, I will give a sketch of its general habits, andany other facts connected with it. The Orang-utan is known toinhabit Sumatra and Borneo, and there is everj^ reason to believethat it is confined to these two great islands, in the former ofwhich, however, it seems to be much more rare. In Borneo ithas a wide range, inhabiting many districts on the south-west,south-east, north-east, and noi*th-west coasts, but appears to bechiefly confined to the low and swampy forests. It seems at firstsight very inexplicable that the Mias should be quite unknownin the Sarawak valley, while it is abundant in Sambas, on thewest, and Sadong, on the east. But when we know the habitsand mode of life of the animal, we see a suflicient reason for thisapparent anomaly in the physical features of the Sarawakdistrict. In the Sadong, where I observed it, the Mias is onlyfound where the country is low, level, and swampy, and at thesame time covered with a lofty virgin forest. From theseswamps rise many isolated mountains, on some of which theDyaks have settled, and covered with i^lantations of fruit trees.These are a great attraction to the !Mias, which comes to feed onthe unripe fruits, but always retii'es to the swamp at night.Where the country becomes slightly elevated, and the soil dry,the Mias is no longer to be found. For example, in all the lowerpart of the Sadong valley it abounds, but as soon as we ascendabove the limits of the tides where the country, though still flat,is high enough to be diy, it disappears. Now the Sarawak v^alleyhas this peculiai'ity—the lower jDortion though swampy is notcovered with continuous lofty forest, but is principally occupiedby the Xipa palm ; and near the town of Sarawak where thecountry becomes dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, andcovered with small patches of virgin forest, and much secondgrowthjungle on ground which has once been cultivated by theMalays or Dyaks.