d dashing them at us. This game
lasted 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.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--The Pongo Skull, sent by Radermacher to Camper,
after Camper's original sketches, as reproduced by Lucae.]

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 "Beschrijving van der Groote Borneosche Orang-outang of de
Oost-Indische Pongo," is contained in the same volume of the Batavian
Society's Transactions. After Von Wurmb had drawn up his description he
states, in a letter dated Batavia, Feb. 18, 1781, [11] 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 Wurmb 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, with measurements,
of a female Pongo four feet high.

Did either 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, tome 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 to send me the skull of one
of these animals, which measured fifty-three inches, or four feet five
inches, in height. I have sent some sketches of it to M. Soemmering at
Mayence, which are better calculated, however, to give an idea of the
form than of the real size of the parts."

These sketches have been reproduced by Fischer and by Lucae, and bear
date 1783, Soemmering having received them in 1784. Had either o