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It was feeding on succulent shoots by the water-side: a fact which surprised the professor, for his inquiries and experience had hitherto taught him that orangs never eat such food except when starving. The fat and vigorous condition in which this animal was forbade the idea of starvation.
And this in spite of the glaring fact that, in our teeth, hands, and other features grounded on by naturalists as characteristic, we do not differ more from the simiadae than the bats do from the lemurs in spite also of that resemblance of analogy to the orangs which he himself admits, and which, at the least, must be held to imply a certain relation.
It will therefore be convenient in endeavouring to form a notion of what we are justified in believing about these animals, to commence with the best known man-like Apes, the Gibbons and Orangs; and to make use of the perfectly reliable information respecting them as a sort of criterion of the probable truth or falsehood of assertions respecting the others.
And indeed nothing could look much less like the Chimpanzees or the Orangs, then known, than the Pongo; for all the specimens of Chimpanzee and Orang which had been observed were small of stature, singularly human in aspect, gentle and docile; while Wurmb's Pongo was a monster almost twice their size, of vast strength and fierceness, and very brutal in expression; its great projecting muzzle, armed with strong teeth, being further disfigured by the outgrowth of the cheeks into fleshy lobes.
Suffice it to say, that the Orangs and the Gibbons constitute the distinct genera, 'Simia' and 'Hylobates'; while the Chimpanzees and Gorillas are by some regarded simply as distinct species of one genus, 'Troglodytes'; by others as distinct genera 'Troglodytes' being reserved for the Chimpanzees, and 'Gorilla' for the Enge-ena or Pongo.
Our crew now had an addition of two new hands: the cook aforesaid, and a Dyak who accompanied us as guide, and who had the reputation of having killed with his own hand a greater number of orangs than any native in Sarawak. Four hours above Sadong the stream narrows to about twenty feet in width, and the scenery here is truly beautiful.
Each Mias is said to make a fresh one for himself every night; but I should think that is hardly probable, or their remains would be much more abundant; for though I saw several about the coal-mines, there must have been many Orangs about every day, and in a year their deserted nests would become very numerous.
After quoting the account of the great Pongo, Buffon justly remarks, that all the 'Jockos' and 'Orangs' hitherto brought to Europe were young; and he suggests that, in their adult condition, they might be as big as the Pongo or 'great Orang'; so that, provisionally, he regarded the Jockos, Orangs, and Pongos as all of one species.
Blyth, the late curator, states "that it is by no means one of the largest size"; which means that it is about 4 feet high! Having these undoubted examples of error in the dimensions of Orangs, it is not too much to conclude that Mr. St.
In young Orangs similarly preserved, on the other hand, the spinal column is either straight, or even concave forwards, throughout the lumbar region.
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