This Habit Of Throwing Down Branches When
Irritated Has Been Doubted, But I Have, As Here Narrated,
Observed It Myself On At Least Three Separate Occasions.
It was
however always the female Arias who behaved in this way, and it
may be that the male,
Trusting more to his great strength and his
powerful canine teeth, is not afraid of any other animal, and
does not want to drive them away, while the parental instinct of
the female leads her to adopt this mode of defending herself and
her young ones.
In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I was much
troubled by the Dyak dogs, which, being always kept in a state of
semi-starvation, are ravenous for animal food. I had a great iron
pan, in which I boiled the bones to make skeletons, and at night
I covered this over with boards, and put heavy stones upon it;
but the dogs managed to remove these and carried away the greater
part of one of my specimens. On another occasion they gnawed away
a good deal of the upper leather of my 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, we had the fortune to fall in with
a very old male Mias, feeding on some low trees growing in the
water. The country was flooded for a long distance, but so full
of trees and stumps that the laden boat could not be got in among
them, and if it could have been we should only have frightened
the Mias away. I therefore got into the water, which was nearly
up to my waist, and waded on until I was near enough for a shot.
The difficulty then was to load my gun again, for I was so deep
in the water that I could not hold the gun sloping enough to pour
the powder in. I therefore had to search for a shallow place, and
after several shots under these trying circumstances, I was
delighted to see the monstrous animal roll over into the water. I
now towed him after me to the stream, but the Malays objected to
having the animal put into the boat, and he was so heavy that I
could not do it without their help. I looked about for a place to
skin him, but not a bit of dry ground was to be seen, until at
last I found a clump of two or three old trees and stumps,
between which a few feet of soil had collected just above the
water, which was just large enough for us to drag the animal upon
it. I first measured him, and found him to be by far the largest
I had yet seen, for, though the standing height was the same as
the others (4 feet 2 inches), the outstretched arms were 7 feet 9
inches, which was six inches more than the previous one, and the
immense broad face was 13 1/2 inches wide, whereas the widest I
had hitherto seen was only 11 1/2 inches. The girth of the body
was 3 feet 7 1/2 inches. I am inclined to believe, therefore,
that the length and strength of the arms, and the width of the
face continues increasing to a very great age, while the standing
height, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head,
rarely if ever exceeds 4 feet 2 inches.
As this was the last Mias I shot, and the last time I saw an
adult living animal, I will give a sketch of its general habits,
and any other facts connected with it. The Orangutan is known to
inhabit Sumatra and Borneo, and there is every reason to believe
that it is confined to these two great islands, in the former of
which, however, it seems to be much more rare. In Borneo it has a
wide range, inhabiting many districts on the southwest,
southeast, northeast, and northwest coasts, but appears to be
chiefly confined to the low and swampy forests. It seems, at
first sight, very inexplicable that the Mias should be quite
unknown in the Sarawak valley, while it is abundant in Sambas, on
the west, and Sadong, on the east. But when we know the habits
and mode of life of the animal, we see a sufficient reason for
this apparent anomaly in the physical features of the Sarawak
district. In the Sadong, where I observed it, the Mias is only
found when the country is low level and swampy, and at the same
time covered with a lofty virgin forest. From these swamps rise
many isolated mountains, on some of which the Dyaks have settled
and covered with plantations of fruit trees. These are a great
attraction to the Mias, which comes to feed on the unripe fruits,
but always retires 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 lower part of the
Sadong valley it abounds, but as soon as we ascend above the
limits of the tides, where the country, though still flat, is
high enough to be dry, it disappears. Now the Sarawak valley has
this peculiarity - the lower portion though swampy, is not
covered with a continuous lofty forest, but is principally
occupied by the Nipa palm; and near the town of Sarawak where the
country becomes dry, it is greatly undulated in many parts, and
covered with small patches of virgin forest, and much second-
growth jungle on the ground, which has once been cultivated by
the Malays or Dyaks.
Now it seems probable to me that a wide extent of unbroken and
equally lofty virgin forest is necessary to the comfortable
existence of these animals. Such forests form their open country,
where they can roam in every direction with as much facility as
the Indian on the prairie, or the Arab on the desert, passing
from tree-top to tree-top without ever being obliged to descend
upon the earth.
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