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

,IV.] BORNEO—THE ORAXG-UTAX. 47My next informant was the Orang Kaya, oi- chief of the BalowDyaks, on the Simunjon Eiver. He said: "The Mias has noenemies ; no animals dare attack it but the crocodile and thepython. He always kills the crocodile by main strength, standingupon it, pulling open its jaws, and ripping up its throat.If a python attacks a Mias, he seizes it with his hands, and.then bites it, and soon kills it. The Mias is very strong ; thereis no animal in the jungle so strong as he."It is very remarkable that an animal so large, so peculiar, andof such a high type of form as the Orang-utan, should be confinedto so limited a district—to two islands, and those almostthe last inhabited by the higher Mammalia ; for, eastward ofBorneo and Java, the Quadrumania, Ruminants, Carnivora, andmany other groups of Mammalia, diminish rapidly, and soonWhen we consider, further, that almost allentirely disajDpear.other animals have in earlier ages been represented by alliedyet distinct forms—that, in the latter part of the tertiarypei'iod, Europe was inhabited by bears, deer, wolves, and cats ;Australia by kangaroos and other Marsupials ;South Americaby gigantic sloths and ant-eaters ; all different from any nowexisting, though intimately allied to them—we have everyreason "to believe that the Orang-utan, the Chimpanzee, and T'y -^;the Gorilla have also had their forerunners. With what interestmust every naturalist look forward to the time when the cavesand tertiary deposits of the tropics may he thoroughly examined,and the past history and earliest appearance of the great manlikeapes be at length made know^n.I wall now say a few words as to the su]Dposed existence of aBornean Orang as large as the Gorilla. I have myself examinedthe bodies of seventeen freshly-killed Orangs, all of which werecarefully measured ; and of seven of them I preserved theskeleton. I also obtained two skeletons killed by other persons.Of this extensive series, sixteen were fully adult, nine beingmales, and seven females. The adult males of the large Orangsonly varied from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2 inches in height,measured fairly to the heel, so as to give tlie height of theanimal if it stood perfectly erect ; the extent of tlie outstretchedarms, from 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 8 inches ;and the width ofthe face, from 10 inches to 13^ inches. The dimensions given byother naturalists closely agree with mine. The largest Orangmeasured by Temminek was 4 feet high. Of twenty-fivespecimens collected by Schlegel and Miiller, the largest oldmale was 4 feet 1 inch ; and the largest skeleton in the CalcuttaMuseum was, according to Mr. Blyth, 4 feet U inch. My, specimenswere all from the north-west coast of Borneo ; those ofthe Dutch from the west and south coasts ;and no specimenhas yet reached Europe exceeding these dimensions, althoughthe total number of skins and skeletons must amount to o\er ahundred.Strange to say, however, several persons declare that they