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and the pair of nutmeg pigeons will already eat chopped coconut from our hands.

"The monkeys, however, are of most interest, and are given daily exercise on deck. The male is an adept at the most horrible grimaces, but is an arrant coward, and, when startled, rushes to his companion, and, although the heavier of the two, puts his arms around her and is carried back downwards all over the place. When it is time to re-cage them, we have only to drive them together and they run into each other's arms, clasp convulsively, and incontinently roll over, when, as they lie squealing and grimacing on deck, they may be picked up and put back in their box. On one occasion this manœuvre was executed on the rail, and they fell overboard, sinking without a struggle, locked in a close embrace.

"Fortunately for them, the Terrapin was becalmed at the time, and they were recovered, to be very subdued for a time after the rescue, but none the worse for their experience.

"At 6 P.M. a light breeze sprang up, with signs of a squall from the north, and carried us along at a 2 to 3 knot pace through the night. A porpoise was harpooned under the bow, but broke away before it could be secured.

"On the 2nd the wind was light all day, save for a squall that compelled us to lower the foresail. Towards evening, Mount Thuillier, bearing W. by N., was just visible 50 miles away. The breeze freshened, and with darkness the last sign of the Nicobars dropped below the horizon, while daybreak revealed ahead of us the rounded summit of Pulo Bras."

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PART II

CHAPTER I

Position

THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND THEIR INHABITANTS

Soundings Relationship Islands Area - Great Andaman Mountains-Little Andaman-Rivers-Coral Banks-Scenery-Harbours -Timber-Flora-Climate - Cyclones-Geology-Minerals - Subsidence -Earthquakes-History-Aborigines-Convicts and the Penal SystemGrowth and Resources of the Settlement-Products and Manufactures. THE Andamans, which together with the Nicobars form one of the minor dependencies of our Indian Empire, are situated in the Bengal Sea, between the parallels of 10° 30′ and 14° 15′ N. latitude, and the meridians 92° 10′ and 93° 30′ E. longitude, where they lie in a N. by E. direction. To the west the coast of Madras is some 700 miles distant, and eastward Tenasserim, bordered by the islands of the Mergui Archipelago, lies about 320 miles away. Intervening between them and Sumatra to the south lies the Nicobar group, and before Cape Negrais in Burma is reached the little island of Preparis must be passed.

Close to Cape Negrais terminate the Arakan Hills, one of a series of ranges that run down from the Eastern Himalayas ; and just south of Acheen Head we have the Gunong Mas, Batu Mukuruh, and other mountains; therefore, looking at a map of the district, it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that the whole of the islands last enumerated are nothing less than a continuation southward of the Arakan Hills.

But although they form a chain that seems to indicate a

past union of Sumatra and Burma, investigation proves that this is far from being the case. For soundings in this part of the ocean show that between the Nicobars and the group of islands adjacent to the north-east point of Sumatra-entering from the open sea to the west, and thence trending north between the Andamans and Malay Peninsula almost as far as the latitude of Narkondam-there runs a long tongue of depressed ocean bed with depths everywhere over 1000 fathoms. This fact, together with the shallowness of the sea-bottom around and connecting the Andamans with the Arakan Yoma Peninsula, suggests the inference that the former were at one time past the termination of a seaward extension from Cape Negrais of the Arakan Yoma Range a conclusion that is in some degree emphasized by the zoological and botanical conditions common to the two.

The principal islands are, Great and Little Andaman, Rutland and the Labyrinths, the Archipelago, North Sentinel, Interview Island, Landfall Island, and the Cocos, but there are many smaller adjacent, while to the eastward are the off-lying volcanic islets of Narkondam and Barren Island. The total area of the group is 2508 square miles.*

Great Andaman-in which may be included Landfall and Rutland Islands, for the whole land mass is so compact and divided up by such narrow shallow straits that it appears to be one single island that has been broken up by subsidence and adjoining volcanic action-is 142 miles long, and 17 miles broad at its widest point.

There are generally stated to be two straits, but as one of them bifurcates, the Great Andaman proper is really cut into four parts.

Austin Strait, which divides North from Middle Andaman, is very narrow and intricate, and not to be traversed by boats at low tide; but the Andaman Strait,-generally 2 to 3 cables wide-which separates South from Middle Andaman at a spot where the hills are lower than elsewhere, although intricate, and possessing a bar at its eastern mouth with a depth of 9 or 10 *This was the estimated area before Col. Hobday's survey of 1883-5.

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