With respect to the orang the unity of species is also not yet ascertained. The Malays of the country to which they belong assert that there are different forms of this animal, which go by the general name of meias. The descriptions current among that people respecting these varieties are surprising. We are tempted to believe in the existence of different species, and some zoologists, Brühl among others, hold that there are, at any rate, two such species. Wallace, who is intimately acquainted with the species, says nothing on this point in his work on the Malay Archipelago, but it seems to appear from his general remarks that he is disposed to recognize only one species of this animal. There are, perhaps, constant varieties, limited to different places, and the future will throw more certain light on this question. It is better, therefore, to leave it in abeyance, instead of indulging in peremptory and unnecessary negations. With respect to the gibbon, the question of variety of species has been long decided. CHAPTER V. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, HABITS IN A STATE OF NATURE, AND NATIVE NAMES OF ANTHROPOIDS. The gorilla inhabits the forests of West Africa, between lat. 2° N. and 5° S., and long. 6° and 16° E. They are most widely diffused in the northern part of this territory, on the rivers Ogōwē, Gaboon, and Danger. Ford asserts that these apes are chiefly found in the chain of mountains which extends for about a hundred miles from the coast of Guinea, between the Camaroon and Angola, and which is known as the Serra do Cristal. They have also been found at the source of the Danger (Muni, Mooney). In Ford’s time, about 1851, he saw them half a day’s journey from the mouth of that river. In the years 1851 and 1852 gorillas were seen in large numbers on the sea-coast, probably driven thither from the interior by a scarcity of food. At that time four or five specimens were obtained in the course of a few months. After this they again completely disappeared from the neighbourhood of the coast, so that an American merchant captain offered 6000 dollars for a live specimen without being able to obtain it. According to H. von Koppenfels, the gorilla inhabits the district which lies between the mouth of the Muni and that of the Congo.