Bambusa schizostachyoides, Kz.
Oxytenanthera nigrociliata, Munro.
Dinachloa Tjankorreh, Büse.

-Supp., And. and Nic. Gazette, April 1900.

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APPENDIX C

NOTES ON THE PRODUCE OF THE ANDAMANESE FORESTS The following is a list of some of the more useful and valuable woods :

The Madras and Bombay Government gun-carriage factories are supplied with Andamanese timber, which, so far, is understood to have given them satisfaction. Such timber has been sent to Roorkee for the Military Gymnasium, as being the best suited in India for its purposes. The Indian Marine

Department also takes it regularly. Andamanese timber has also been supplied to Woolwich Arsenal. These facts show that Andamanese timber is of value to such establishments as gun-carriage factories, arsenals, gymnasia, and shipbuilding yards.

For various reasons, most of the Andamanese timbers will probably be found to be best marketable in a converted form. It is believed that such converted timbers will be found useful for six large trades at least, viz., paving wood-blocks, gun-stocks, pianoforte manufacture, furniture, organ building— for which Padouk is pre-eminently suitable-and electric light and telephone fittings. If Gurjan should turn out, as is believed to be probable, to be of use for paving wood-blocks, then the supply would be very large.

Two forms of converted timbers may be specially noticed as probably marketable in large quantities, viz., railway sleepers, and tea shooks. It is believed that there are several timbers which would stand the strain of railway traffic; and as regards tea shooks, Gurjan is used for this purpose in some mills in Assam, and of this particular wood there is an unlimited supply all over the Andamans, which could probably be delivered locally at a price which would enable it to compete well in Indian markets with other timbers used for teaboxes.

The supply of mangrove billets for firewood, at points where it can be easily and cheaply shipped, is very large in the Andamans, and it is thought possible that a very profitable and lasting Indian trade might be established in firewood.

At present, no trade exists at all in gurjan oil, and, as above stated, the supply of Gurjan trees is unlimited. It is believed that the supply of Gurjan in India has largely been worked out, therefore that in the Andamans should become valuable. A small quantity of gurjan oil is extracted in the Settlement and used chiefly for mixing with earth oil for application to shingle roofs. The uses to which this oil is put are so many that the possibility of a profitable trade in the Andamanese supply seems to be beyond question.

For the construction of houses, bridges, and jetties, the following species are chiefly used in the Settlement :

Padouk.-Posts, trusses, purlins, common rafters, battens, floor and wall planking, shingles, doors, and windows.

Koko.-Joists, common rafters, battens, fillets, floor-planking, doors, and

windows.

White Chuglam.-Floor and ceiling planking.

Pyimma.-Posts, joists, common rafters, purlins, frames, floor and wall planking, shingles.

Lakuch and Mowha.-Posts, girders, beams, and purlins.

Gangaw.-Posts, girders of bridges, 3-inch planking over sluices, and

sluice-gates.

Thitmin.-Inside walling and jambs, shelves, and any light work.

In boat-building the following species are used by the Marine Department :

Padouk.-Hull planks, keel, stem and stern posts, ribs of large boats, and

thwärts.

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341

White Chuglam.-Oars.
Pyimma.-Thwarts.

Thitmin.-Masts and spars.

Chooi.-Ribs of small boats.

For furniture, Padouk and Koko are chiefly used. Didu is the only species utilised for the manufacture of tea-boxes at Port Blair. Bark for tanning purposes is obtained from various species of Mangrove and from Terminalia procera. Mangrove also gives the most suitable wood for use in the furnaces of the Settlement steam-launches.

Firewood for ordinary purposes is obtained from all hard-wood species other than those in demand for timber.

Gurjan oil is obtained from three species of Dipterocarpus. The tapping operations extend from 1st January to 30th April. The daily outturn averages 7 lbs. per man, the greatest flow of oil taking place in the month of March. The mixture used for steeping house-shingles consists of 3 lbs. of gurjan oil to I lb. of earth oil and 1 lb. of Alford's metallic paint.

The minor produce of the Andamans comprises several useful species of bamboo and cane, used in house-building and in the construction of furniture, rattan roots for walking-sticks, and two species of palm (Nipa fruticans and Licuala peltata), the leaves of which are used for thatching.

The inner bark of Sterculia villosa is used for making ropes for timberdragging purposes.

With regard to the capabilities of the forests for export purposes, there is an abundance of mature and over-mature Padouk throughout the Andamans. Gurjan oil trees, Gangaw (the Assam "Ironwood"), suitable for sleepers, and Didu, suitable for tea-box planking, are extremely abundant. For the extraction of these species labour alone is required.

The forests are situated, in most cases, on the coast, or on or near to navigable creeks leading to the sea, and are capable of easy and economical working. Andaman and Nicobar Gazette.

The number of children among the Andamanese is probably understated. The census operations have brought to light a new tribe, the Tâbô of North Andaman, and have proved the recently discovered Kôrâ tribe to be comparatively numerous. In explanation of the small numbers of the newly discovered Tâbô tribe, the census party were informed that when a contagious disease was recently introduced among the Tâbôs by the Châriâr or Kôrâ tribes of the coast, they proceeded to kill off all those attacked until very few of the tribe were left.-Supp., And. and Nic. Gazette, March 2, 1901.

The foreign residents number 16,106 (viz., 4102 free and 12,004 convict), who are all located at or near Port Blair; but as the amount is arrived at by deducting the Andamanese and the natives of the Nicobars from the total population of the two groups, allowance must be made for inaccuracy due to estimation only of the Jarawas, Öngés, and Shom Pen.