known at length.
I will now say a few words as to the supposed existence of a Bornean
Orang as large as the Gorilla. I have myself examined the bodies of
seventeen freshly-killed Orangs, all of which were carefully measured;
and of seven of them, I preserved the skeleton. I also obtained two
skeletons killed by other persons. Of this extensive series, sixteen
were fully adult, nine being males, and seven females. The adult males
of the large Orangs only varied from 4 feet 1 inch to 4 feet 2 inches
in height, measured fairly to the heel, so as to give the height of the
animal if it stood perfectly erect; the extent of the outstretched arms,
from 7 feet 2 inches to 7 feet 8 inches; and the width of the face, from
10 inches to 13 1/2 inches. The dimensions given by other naturalists
closely agree with mine. The largest Orang measured by Temminck was 4
feet high. Of twenty-five specimens collected by Schlegel and Muller,
the largest old male was 4 feet 1 inch; and the largest skeleton in
the Calcutta Museum was, according to Mr. Blyth, 4 feet 1 1/2 inch.
My specimens were all from the northwest coast of Borneo; those of the
Dutch from the west and south coasts; and no specimen has yet reached
Europe exceeding these dimensions, although the total number of skins
and skeletons must amount to over a hundred.
Strange to say, however, several persons declare that they have measured
Orangs of a much larger size. Temminck, in his Monograph of the Orang,
says that he has just received news of the capture of a specimen 5 feet
3 inches high. Unfortunately, it never seems to have a reached Holland,
for nothing has since been heard of any such animal. Mr. St. John, in
his "Life in the Forests of the Far East," vol. ii. p. 237, tells us
of an Orang shot by a friend of his, which was 5 feet 2 inches from the
heel to the top of the head, the arm 17 inches in girth, and the wrist
12 inches! The head alone was brought to Sarawak, and Mr. St. John tells
us that he assisted to measure this, and that it was 15 inches broad
by 14 long. Unfortunately, even this skull appears not to have been
preserved, for no specimen corresponding to these dimensions has yet
reached England.
In a letter from Sir James Brooke, dated October 1857 in which he
acknowledges the receipt of my Papers on the Orang, published in the
"Annals and Magazine of Natural History," he sends me the measurements
of a specimen killed by his nephew, which I will give exactly as I
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