. Man's place in nature, and other anthropological essays. te, told by Mr Bennett (L 156), will show. It would appear that his Gibbon had a peculiarinclination for disarranging things in the cabin. Among thesearticles, a piece of soap would especially attract his notice, and forthe removal of this he had been once or twice scolded. Onemorning, says Mr. Bennett, I was writing, the ape being presentin the cabin, when casting my eyes towards him, I saw the littlefellow taking the soap. I watched him without his perceiving thatI did so: and he occasionally would cast a furtive glance towardst
. Man's place in nature, and other anthropological essays. te, told by Mr Bennett (L 156), will show. It would appear that his Gibbon had a peculiarinclination for disarranging things in the cabin. Among thesearticles, a piece of soap would especially attract his notice, and forthe removal of this he had been once or twice scolded. Onemorning, says Mr. Bennett, I was writing, the ape being presentin the cabin, when casting my eyes towards him, I saw the littlefellow taking the soap. I watched him without his perceiving thatI did so: and he occasionally would cast a furtive glance towardsthe place where I sat. I pretended to write; he, seeing me busilyoccupied, took the soap, and moved away with it in his he had walked half the length of the cabin, I spoke quietly,without frightening him. The instant he found I saw him, hewalked back again, and deposited the soap nearly in the sameplace from whence he had taken it. There was certainly somethingmore than instinct in that action; he evidently betrayed a con- 26 HANS PLACE IN NATURE. Fig. 9.—An adult male Orang-Utan, after Miiller and Schlegel. sciousness of having done wrong both, by his first and last actions— and what is reason if that is not an exercise of it ? The most elaborate account of the natural history of the Orang-Utan extant, is that given in the Verhandelingen over de Na-tuurlijke Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche overzeesche Bezittingen(1839--45), by Dr. Salomon Miiller and Dr. Schlegel, and I shallbase what I have to say upon this subject almost entirely on their NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MAN-LHvE APES 27 statements, adding, here and there, particulars of interest from thewritings of Brooke, Wallace, and others. The Orang-Utan would rarely seem to exceed four feet in height,but the body is very bulky, measuring two-thirds of the height incircumference.* The Orang-Utan is found only in Sumatra and Borneo, and iscommon in neither of these islands — in both of which it occursalways in low, fl
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