A well-known traveller relates a circumstance concerning the orang-otang in its wild state, which is indicative of very considerable powers, both of reflection and invention. When the fruits on the mountains are exhausted, they will frequently descend to the sea-coast, where they feed on various species of shell-fish, but in particular on a large sort of oyster, which commonly lies open on the shore. “Fearful,” he says, “of putting in their paws, lest the oyster should close and crush them, they insert a stone as a wedge within the shell; this prevents it from closing, and they then drag out their prey, and devour it at leisure.”