How easy it is to be deceived as to the height of these animals is well shown in the case of the Sumatran Orang, the skin of which was described by Dr.
Clarke Abel.

The captain and crew who killed this animal declared that when alive he exceeded the tallest man, and looked so gigantic that they thought he was 7 feet high; but that, when he was killed and lay upon the ground, they found he was only about 6 feet.

Now it will hardly be credited that the skin of this identical animal exists in the Calcutta Museum, and Mr.Blyth, the late curator, states "that it is by no means one of the largest size"; which means that it is about 4 feet high! Having these undoubted examples of error in the dimensions of Orangs, it is not too much to conclude that Mr.St.John's friend made a similar error of measurement, or rather, perhaps, of memory; for we are not told that the dimensions were noted down at the time they were made.

The only figures given by Mr.St.John on his own authority are that "the head was 15 inches broad by 14 inches long." As my largest male was 13 1/2 broad across the face, measured as soon as the animal was killed, I can quite understand that when the head arrived at Sarawak from the Batang-Lupar, after two or three days' voyage, it was so swollen by decomposition as to measure an inch more than when it was fresh.

On the whole, therefore, I think it will be allowed, that up to this time we have not the least reliable evidence of the existence of Orangs in Borneo more than 4 feet 2 inches high..