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Show 24 among monkeys. Finally, they are all inhabitants of the old world. The Gibbons are the smallest, sl nderc t, and longc tlimbed of the man-like apes: their arms are longer in pl'oportion to their bodies than tho e of any of the other manlike A pes, so that they can touch the ground when erect ; their hands are longer than their feet, and they are the only Anthropoids which possess callosities lil\e the lower monkey .. They are variously coloured. The Orangs have arm which reach to the ankles in the erect position of the animal; their thumbs and great toes are very short, and their feet are longer than their hands. They are covered with reddi h-brown hair, and the sides of the face, in adult males, are commonly produced into two ere centic, flexible excre cence , like fatty tumours. The Chimpanzees have arm which reach below the knees; they have large thumbs and gr at toe , their hand arc longer than their feet, and their hair i black, while the kin of the face is pale. The Gorilla, lastly, ha arms which reach to the middle of the leg, large thumbs and great toe , feet longer than the hands, a black face, and dark-grey or dun hair. For the purpose which I have at pre ent in view, it is unnecessary that I should enter into any further minutire respecting the di tinctive characters of the genera and species into which these man-like Apes are divided by naturali ts. Suffice it to say, that the Orang and the Gibbon constitute the distinct genera, Sirnia and Hylobates; while the Chimpanzees and Gorillas are by some regarded simply as distinct species of one genus, Troglodytes; by others as di tinct genera-Troglodytes being reserved for the Chimpanzees, and Gorilla for the Enge-ena or Pongo. Sound know ledge respecting the habits and mode of life of the man-like Apes has been even more difficult of attainment than correct information regarding their structure. Once in a generation, a Wallace may be found physically, mentally, and morally qualified to wander unscathed through 25 the tropical wilds of America and of Asia; to form magnificent collections as he wanders; and withal to think out sagaciously the conclusions suggested by his collections : but, to the ordinary explorer or collector, the dense forests of equatorial Asia and Africa, which constitute the favourite habitation of the Orang, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla, present difficulties of no ordinary magnitude: and the man who risks his life by even a short visit to the malarious shores of those regions may well be excused if he shrinks from facing the dangers of the interior; if he contents himself with stimulating the indust:ry of the better seasoned natives, and collecting and collating the more or less mythical reports and traditions with which they are too ready to supply him. In such a manner most of the earlier accounts of the habits of the man-like Apes originated; and even now a good deal of what passes current must be admitted to have no very safe foundation. The best information we possess is that, based almost wholly on direct European testimony, respecting the Gibbons; the next best evidence relates to the Orangs; while our knowledge of the habits of the Chimpanzee and the Gorilla stands much in need of support and enlargement by additional testimony from instructed European eye-witnesses. 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. Of the GIBBONs, half a dozen species are found scattered over the Asiatic islands, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and through Malacca, Siam, Arracan, and an uncertain extent of Hindostan, on the main land of Asia. The largest attain a few inches above three feet in height, from the crown to the heel, so that they are shorter than the other man-like Apes; while the slenderness of their bodies renders their mass far smaller in proportion even to this diminished height. |
