countenance. Its weight was three pounds nine ounces,
its height fourteen inches, and the spread of its arms
twenty-three inches. I preserved its shin and sheleton,
and in doing so found that when it fell from the tree it
must have broken an arm and a leg, which had, however,
united so rapidly that I had only noticed the hard swellings
on the limbs where the irregular junction of the
bones had taken place.
Exactly a week after I had caught this interesting little
. animal I succeeded in shooting a full-grown male Orangutan.
I had just come home from an entomologising
excursion when Charles1 rushed in out of breath with
running and excitement, and exclaimed, interrupted by
gasps, “ Get the gun, sir,—be quick,—such a large Mias ! I
“ Where is it ? ” I asked, taking hold of my gun as I spoke,
which happened luckily to have one barrel loaded with
balL “ Close by, sir—on ^the path to the mines—he can’t
get away.” Two Dyaks chanced to be in the house at the
time, so I called them to accompany me, and started off,
telling Charley to bring all the ammunition after me as
soon as possible. The path from our clearing to the mines
led along the side of the hill a little way up its slope, and
parallel with it at the foot a wide opening had been made for
a road, in which several Chinamen were working, so that
the animal could not escape into the swampy forest below
1 Charles Allen, an English lad of sixteen, accompanied me as an assistant.
without descending to cross the road or ascending to get
round the clearings. We walked cautiously along, not
making the least noise, and listening attentively for any
sound which might betray the presence of the Mias,
stopping at intervals to gaze upwards. Charley soon
joined us at the place where he had seen the creature, and
having taken the ammunition and put a bullet in the
other barrel we dispersed a little, feeling sure that it must
be somewhere near, as it had probably descended the hill,
and would not be likely to return again. After a short
time I heard a very slight rustling sound overhead, but on
gazing up could see nothing. I moved about in every
direction to get a full view into every part of the tree
under which I had been standing, when I again heard the
same noise but louder, and saw the leaves shaking as if
caused by the motion of some heavy animal which moved
off to an adjoining tree. I immediately shouted for all of
them to come up and try and. get a view, so as to allow me
to have a shot. This was not an easy matter, as the Mias
had a knack of selecting places with dense foliage beneath.
Very soon, however, one of the Dyaks called me and
pointed upwards, and on looking I saw a great red hairy
body and a huge black face gazing down from a great
height, as if wanting to know what was making such a
disturbance below. I instantly fired, and he made off at
once, so that I could not then tell whether I had hit him,