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Show 16 much other interesting matter, contain some notes upon the Orang. The small sort of Orang-Utan~ viz. that of V os~aer and of Ed wards, he says, is found only In Borneo, and chwfly about Banjermassing, Mampauwa, and Landak. Of these he had seen some fifty during his residence in the Indies; but none exceeded 2! feet in length. The larger sort, often regarded as chimrera, continues Radermacher, would, p~rhaps long have remained so, had it not been for the exertions of the Resident at Rembang, M. Palm, who, on returning from Landak towards Pontiana, shot one, and forwarded it to Batavia in spirit, for transmission to Europe. Palm's letter describing the capture runs thus:-(( II erewith I send your Excellency, contrary to all expectation ( incc long ago I offered more than a hundred ducat to the natives for an Orang-Utan of four or five feet high) an Orang which I heard of this morning about eight o'clock. For a loug time we did our best to take the frightful bea t alive in the dense forest about half way to Landak. W c forgot even to eat, so anxious were we not to let him e cape ; but it was necessary to take care he did not revenge him elf, as he kept continually breaking off heavy pieces of wood and green branches, and dashing them at us. This game la ted till four o'clock in the afternoon, when we determined to shoot him; in which I succeeded very well, and indeed better than I ever shot from a boat before; for the bullet went just into the side of his chest, so that he was not much damaged. We got him into the prow still living, and bound him fast, and next morning he died of his wounds. All Pontiana came on board to see him when we arrived.'' Palm gives his height from the head to the heel as 49 inches. A very intelligent German officer, Baron Von Wurmb, who at this time held a post in the Dutch East India service, and was Secretary of the Batavian Society, studied this animal, and his careful description of it, entitled " Be chrijving van der Groote Borneosche Orang-outang of de Oost-Indi che Pongo," is contained in the same volume of the Batavian 17 Society's Transactions. After Von Wurmb had drawn up his description he states, in a letter dated Batavia, Feb. 18, 1781,* that the specimen was sent to Europe in brandy to be placed in the collection of the Prince of Orange; "unfortunately," he continues, "we hear that the ship has been wrecked." Von vVurmb died in the course of the year 1781, the letter in which this passage occurs being the last he wrote ; but in his posthumous papers, published in the fourth part of the Transactions of the Batavian Society, there is a brief description,. wit~ measurements, of a female Pongo four feet high. D1d mther of these original specimens, on which Von Wurmb's descriptions are based, ever reach Europe ? It is commonly supposed that they did; but I doubt the fact. For, appended to the memoir '' De l'Ourang-outang," in the collected edition of Camper's works, 'l1ome I., pp. 64-66, is a note by Camper himself, referring to Von Wurmb's papers, and continuing thus:-" Heretofore, this kind of ape had never been known in Europe. Radermacher has had the kindness l?w. 7.- Thc Pongo Skull, sent by Radermacher to Camper, after Camper's original sketches, as reproduced by Lucre. to send me the skull of one of these animals, which measured fifty-three inches, or four feet five inches, in height. I have * "Briefe des Hcrrn v. Wurmb uncl de II. Bm·on von Wollzogen. Gotha, 1794.'' c |
