This is another of Lord Delamere's East African photographs, and shows a couple of wild elephants in the open.
By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild] [Tring.
GIANT TORTOISE.
This photograph of Mr. Walter Rothschild riding on one of his huge tortoises gives a good idea of the relative sizes of one of the "giant tortoises" and a human being.
Photo by Fratelli Alinari] [Florence.
A GROUP OF CROCODILIANS.
A wonder of modern animal-training. The photograph shows a number of living crocodilians with their trainer. They have been on exhibition in Florence for some years past, and are still to be seen there.
There is a tradition in Sumatra that man-like apes exist, of a higher character than the orang-utan. Pending the discovery of more remains, the following extract is worth quoting, as giving shape to current ideas about such creatures both here and among the Malays. They take form in a very curious and interesting book, called "The Prison of Weltevreden," written by Walter M. Gibson in the middle of the last century. His story is that he was kept in prison at Weltevreden, in Java, by the Dutch, after leading a life of adventure and enquiry among the islands of the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; that he came in his own small vessel to the Malay Archipelago, and spent some time in the interior of Sumatra, where he saw apparent evidences of semi-human beings. He saw the orang-utans in their native forest, and noted that they were covered with red hair, and was surprised at the slowness of their movements. Among some men engaged in building a stable for the raja, he saw "a dark form, tall as a middle-sized man, covered with hair, that looked soft and flowing; the arms, hands, legs, and feet seemed well formed, like the Malays'; the body was straight, and easily bore, on the right shoulder, the yoke of two heavy panniers filled with material for the building which was going on." Gibson says that "the eyes were clearer, the nose fuller, and the lips thinner than those of the common Malay, but the mouth was wide, the lips protruding, and a chin formed no part of its hairy face; yet it was pleasantly human in expression," much more so than the dirty, mottle-faced coolies and lascars he had seen. We quote the account, as showing, if true, that Gibson saw an anthropoid ape taught to work.