Andaman Islands

Andaman Islands, a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, part of India. Large and small, they number 204. The main part of the group consists of a band of five chief islands, so closely adjoining and overlapping each other that they have

long been known collectively as "the great Andaman." The five islands are in order from north to south: North Andaman, Middle Andaman, South Andaman, Baratang and Rutland Island.

Four narrow straits part these islands: Austin Strait,

between North and Middle Andaman; Homfray's Strait between

Middle Andaman and Baratang, and the north extremity of South

Andaman; Middle (or Andaman) Strait between Baratang and South

Andaman; and Macpherson Strait between South Andaman and Rutland

Island. Of these only the last is navigable by ocean-going

vessels.

= Physical Geography

The Andaman Islands lie 590 m. from the mouth

of the Hugli, 120 m. from Cape Negrais in Burma, the nearest

point of the mainland, and 340 m. from the northern extremity of

Sumatra. Between the Andamans and Cape Negrais intervene two

small groups, Preparis and Cocos; between the Andamans and

Sumatra lie the Nicobar Islands, the whole group stretching

in a curve, to which the meridian forms a tangent between Cape

Negrais and Sumatra; and though this curved line measures 700

m., the widest sea space is about 91 m. The extreme length

of the Andaman group is 219 m. with an extreme width of 32

m. The main part of it consists of a band of five chief islands,

so closely adjoining and overlapping each other that they have

long been known collectively as "the great Andaman." The

axis of this band, almost a meadian line, is 156 statute miles

long. The five islands are in order from north to south: North

Andaman (51 m. long); Middle Andaman (59 m.); South Andaman

(49 m.); Baratang, running parallel to the east of the South

Andaman for 17 m. from the Middle Andaman; and Rutland Island (11

m.). Four narrow straits part these islands: Austin Strait,

between North and Middle Andaman; Homfray's Strait between

Middle Andaman and Baratang, and the north extremity of South

Andaman; Middle (or Andaman) Strait between Baratang and South

Andaman; and Macpherson Strait between South Andaman and Rutland

Island. Of these only the last is navigable by ocean-going

vessels. Attached to the chief islands are, on the extreme

N., Landfall Islands, separated by the navigable Cleugh

Passage; Interview Island, separated by the very narrow but

navigable Interview Passage, off the W. coast of the Middle

Andaman; the Labyrinth Island off the S.W. coast of the South

Andaman, through which is the safe navigable Elphinstone

Passage; Ritchie's (or the Andaman) Archipelago off the E.

coast of the South Andaman and Baratang, separated by the wide

and safe Diligent Strait and intersected by Kwangtung Strait

and the Tadma Juru (Strait). Little Andaman, roughly 26 m. by

16, forms the southern extremity of the whole group and lies 31

m. S. of Rutland Island across Duncan Passage, in which lie

the Cinque and other islands, forming Manners Strait, the

main commercial highway between the Andamans and the Madras

coast. Besides these are a great number of islets lying off

the shores of the main islands. The principal outlying islands

are the North Sentinel, a dangerous island of about 28 sq. m.,

lying about 18 m. off the W. coast of the South Andaman; the

remarkable marine volcano, Barren Idand (1150 ft.), quiescent

for more than a century, 71 m. N.E. of Port Blair; and the

equally curious isolated mountain, the extinct volcano of

Narcondam, rising 2330 ft. out of the sea, 71 m. E. of the North

Andaman. The land area of the Andaman Idands is 2508 sq.

m. About 18 m. to the W. of the Andamans are the dangerous

Western Banks and Dalrymple Bank, rising to within a few fathoms

of the surface of the sea and forming, with the two Sentinel

Islands, the tops of a line of submarine hills parallel to the

Andamans. Some 40 m. distant to the E. is the Invisible Bank,

with one rock just awash; and 34 m. S.E. of Narcondam is a

submarine hill rising to 377 fathoms below the surface of the

sea. Narcondam, Barren Island and the Invisible Bank, a

great danger of these seas, are in a line almost parallel

to the Andamans inclining towards them from north to south.

Topography

The islands forming Great Andaman consist of a

mass of hills enclosing very narrow valleys, the whole covered

by an exceedingly dense tropical jungle. The hills rise,

especially on the east coast, to a considerable elevation:

the chief heights being in the North Andaman, Saddle Peak

(2400 ft.); in the Middle Andaman, Mount Diavolo behind

Cuthbert Bay (1678 ft.); in the South Andaman, Koiob (1505

ft.), Mount Harriet (1193 ft.) and the Cholunga range (1063

ft.); and in Rutland Island, Ford's Peak (1422 ft.). Little

Andaman, with the exception of the extreme north, is practically

flat. There are no rivers and few perennial streams in the

islands. The scenery is everywhere strikingly beautiful and

varied, and the coral beds of the more secluded bays in

its harbours are conspicuous for their exquisite colouring.

Harbours

The coasts of the Andamans are deeply indented,

giving existence to a number of safe harbours and tidal creeks,

which are often surrounded by mangrove swamps. The chief

harbours, some of which are very capacious, are (starting

northwards from Port Blair, the great harbour of South

Andaman) on the E. coast: Port Meadows, Colebrooke Passage,

Elphinstone Harbour (Homfray's Strait), Stewart Sound and Port

Cornwallis. The last three are very large. On the W. coast:

Temple Sound, Interview Passage, Port Anson or Kwangtung Harbour

(large), Port Campbell (large), Port Mouat and Macpherson

Strait. There are besides many other safe anchorages about

the coast, notably Shoal Bay and Kotara Anchorage in the

South Andaman; Cadell Bay and the Turtle Islands in the

North Andaman; and Outram Harbour and Kwangtung Strait in the

archipelago. The whole of the Andamans and the outlying

islands were completely surveyed topographically by the Indian

Survey Department under Colonel Hobday in 1883-1886, and the

surrounding seas were charted by Commander Carpenter in 1888-1889.

Geology

The Andaman Islands, in conjunction with the

other groups mentioned above, form part of a lofty range

of submarine mountains, 700 m. long, running from Cape

Negrais in the Arakan Yoma range of Burma, to Achin Head in

Sumatra. This range separates the Bay of Bengal from the

Andaman Sea; and it contains much that is geologically

characteristic of the Arakan Yoma, and formations common also

to the Nicobars and to Sumatra and the adjacent islands. The

older rocks are early Tertiary or late Cretaceous but there

are no fossils to indicate age. The newer rocks, common also

to the Nicobars and Sumatra, are in Ritchie's Archipelago

chiefly and contain radiolarians and foraminifera. There is

coral along the coasts everywhere, and the Sentinel Islands

are composed of the newer rocks with a superstructure of

coral. A theory of a still continuing subsidence of the

islanda was formed by Kurz in 1866 and confirmed by Oldham in

1884. Signs of its continuance are found on the east coast

in several places. Barren Island is a volcano of the general

Sunda group which includes also the Pegu group to which

Narcondam belongs. Barren Island was last in eruption in

1803, but there is still a thin column of steam from a

sulphur bed at the top and a variable hot spring at the

point where the last outburst of lava flowed into the sea.

Climate

Rarely affected by a cyclone, though within

the influence of practically every one that blows in the

Bay of Bengal, the Andamans are of the greatest importance

because of the accurate information relating to the

direction and intensity of storms which can be communicated

from them better than from any other point in the bay,

to the vast amount of shipping in this part of the Indian

Ocean. Trustworthy information also regarding the weather

which may be expected in the north and east of India, is

obtained at the islands, and this proves of the utmost value

to the controllers of the great trades dependent upon the

rainfall. A well-appointed meteorological station has been

established at Port Blair since 1868. Speaking generally,

the climate of the Andamans themselves may be described as

normal for tropical islands of similar latitude. It is warm

always, but tempered by pleasant sea-breezes; very hot when

the sun is northing; irregular rainfall, but usually dry

during the north-east, and very wet during the south-west

monsoon. Not only does the rainfall at one place vary from

year to year, but there is an extraordinary difference in the

returns for places quite close to one another. The official

figures in inches for the station at Port Blair, which is

situated in by far the driest part of the settlement, were:--

 _______________________________________________________________________

 |  1895.  |  1896.  |  1897.  |  1898.  |  1899.  |  1900.  |  1901.  |

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 |  125.64 |  107.28 |  136.41 |  127.22 |  87.01  |  83.28  |  132.50 |

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

A tidal observatory has also been maintained at Port Blair since 1880.

Flora

A section of the Forest Department of India has

been established in the Andamans since 1883, and in the

neighbourhood of Port Blair 156 sq. m. have been set apart

for regular forest operations which are carried on by convict

labour. The chief timber of indigenous growth is padouk

(Pterocarpus dalbergioides) used for buildings, boats,

furniture, fine joinery and all purposes to which teak,

mahogany, hickory, oak and ash are applied. This tree

is widely spread and forms a valuable export to European

markets. Other first-class timbers are koko (Albizzia

lebbek), white chuglam (Terminalia bialata), black

chugiam (Myristica irya), marble or zebra wood (Diospyros

kurzii) and satin-wood (Murraya exotica), which differs

from the satin-wood of Ceylon (Chloroxylon swietenia.)

All of these timbers are used for furniture and similar

purposes. In addition there are a number of second-and

third-class timbers, which are used locally and for export to

Calcutta. Gangaw (Messua ferrea) the Assam iron-wood, is

suitable for sleepers; and didu (Bombax insigne) is used

for tea-boxes and packing-cases. Among the imported flora

are tea, Siberian coffee, cocoa, Ceara rubber (which has

not done well), Manila hemp, teak, cocoanut and a number

of ornamental trees, fruit-trees, vegetables and garden

plants. Tea is grown in considerable quantities and the

cultivation is under a department of the penal settlement.

The general character of the forests is Burmese with an

admixture of Malay types. Great mangrove swamps supply

unlimited fire-wood of the best quality. The great peculiarity

of Andaman flora is that, with the exception of the Cocos

islands, no cocoanut palms are found in the archipelago.

Fauna

Animal life is generally deficient throughout the

Andamans, especially as regards mammalia, of which there

are only nineteen separate species in all, twelve of these

being peculiar to the islands. There is a small pig (Sus

andamanensis), important to the food of the people, and a wild

cat (Paradoxurus tytleri); but the bats (sixteen species) and

rats (thirteen species) constitute nearly three-fourths of the

known mammals. This paucity of animal life seems inconsistent

with the theory that the islands were once connected with the

mainland. Most of the birds also are derived from the distant

Indian region, while the Indo-Burmese and Indo-Malayan regions

are represented to a far less degree. Rasorial birds, such as

peafowl, junglefowl, pheasants and partridges, though well

represented in the Arakan hills, are rare in the islands; while

a third of the different species found are peculiar to the

Andamans. Moreover, the Andaman species differ from those

of the adjacent Nicobar Islands. Each group has its distinct

harrier-eagle, red-cheeked paroquet, oriole, sun- bird and

bulbul. Fish are very numerous and many species are peculiar to

the Andaman seas. Turtles are abundant and supply the Calcutta

market. Of imported animals, cattle, goats, asses and dogs

thrive well, ponies and horses indifferently, and sheep

badly, though some success has been achieved in breeding them.

Population

Our earliest notice of the native population is in a remarkable

collection of early Arab notes on India and China (A.D.

851) which accurately represents the view entertained of this

people by mariners down to early twentieth century. "The inhabitants

of these islands eat men alive. They are black, with

woolly hair, and in their eyes and countenances there is

something quite frightful. . . . They go naked and have no

boats. If they had, they would devour all who passed near

them. Sometimes ships that are windbound and have exhausted

their provision of water, touch here and apply to the natives

for it; in such cases the crews sometimes fall into the

hands of the latter and most of them are massacred." The

traditional charge of cannibalism has been very persistent;

but it is entirely denied by the islanders themselves, and is

now and probably always has been untrue. Of their massacres

of shipwrecked crews, in the nineteenth century and earlier, there is no

doubt, but the policy of conciliation unremittingly pursued

in the nineteenth century secured a friendly reception

for shipwrecked crews at any port of the islands except the

south and west of Little Andaman and North Sentinel Island.

The Andamanese are probably the relics of a negro race that

once inhabited the S.E. portion of Asia and its outlying

islands, representatives of which are also still to be found

in the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. Their antiquity

and their stagnation are attested by the remains found in their

kitchen-middens. These are of great age, and rise sometimes to

a height exceeding 15 ft. The fossil shells, pottery and rude

stone implements, found alike at the base and at the surface

of these middens, prove that the habits of the islanders have

not varied since a remote past, and lead to the belief that

the Andamans were settled by their present inhabitants some

time during the Pleistocene period, and certainly no later

than the Neolithic age. The population is not susceptible

of accurate computation, but probably it has always been

small. The estimated total at a census taken in 1901 was

only 2000. Though all descended from one stock, there are

twelve distinct tribes of the Andamanese, each with its own

clearly-defined locality, its own distinct variety of the one

fundamental language and to a certain extent its own separate

habits. Every tribe is divided into septs fairly well

defined. The tribal feeling may be expressed as friendly within

the tribe, courteous to other Andamanese if known, hostile

to every stranger, Andamanese or other. Another division

of the natives is into Aryauto or long-shore-men, and the

Eremtaga or jungle-dwellers. The habits and capacities of

these two differ, owing to surroundings, irrespectively of

tribe. Yet again the Andamanese can be grouped according to

certain salient characteristics: the forms of the bows and

arrows, of the canoes, of ornaments and utensils, of tattooing

and of language. The average height of males is 4 ft. 10 1/2

in.; of females, 4 ft. 6 in. Being accustomed to gratify

every sensation as it arises, they endure thirst, hunger,

want of food and bodily discomfort badly. The skin varies in

colour from an intense sheeny black to a reddish-blown on the

collar-bones, cheeks and other parts of the body. The hair

varies from a sooty black to dark and light brown and red. It

grows in small rings, which give it the appearance of growing

in tufts, though it is really closely and evenly distributed

over the whole scalp. The figures of the men are muscular and

well-formed and generally pleasing; a straight, well-formed

nose and jaw are by no means rare, and the young men are often

distinctly good-looking. The only artificial deformity is

a depression of the skull, chiefly among one of the southern

tribes, caused by the pressure of a strap used for carrying

loads. The pleasing appearance natural to the men is not

a characteristic of the women, who early have a tendency to

stoutness and ungainliness of figure, and sometimes to pronounced

prognathism. They are, however, always bright and merry, are

under no special social restrictions and have considerable

influence. The women's heads are shaved entirely and the

men's into fantastic patterns. Yellow and red ochre mixed

with grease are coarsely smeared over the bodies, grey in

coarse patterns and white in fine patterns resembling tattoo

marks. Tattooing is of two distinct varieties. In the south

the body is slightly cut by women with small flakes of glass

or quartz in zigzag or lineal patterns downwards. In the north

it is deeply cut by men with pig-arrows in lines across the

body. The male matures when about fifteen years of age,

marries when about twenty-six, begins to age when about

forty, and lives onto sixty or sixty-five if he reaches old

age. Except as to the marrying age, these figures fairly

apply to women. Before marriage free intercourse between the

sexes is the rule, though certain conventional precautions

are taken to prevent it. Marriages rarely produce more

than three children and often none at all. Divorce is rare,

unfaithfulness after marriage not common and incest unknown.

By preference the Andamanese are exogamous as regards sept

and endogamous as regards tribe. The children are possessed

of a bright intelligence, which, however, soon reaches its

climax, and the adult may be compared in this respect with

the civilized child of ten or twelve. The Andamanese are,

indeed, bright and merry companions, busy in their own pursuits,

keen sportsmen, naturally independent and not lustful, but

when angered, cruel, jealous, treacherous and vindictive,

and always unstable--in fact, a people to like but not to

trust. There is no idea of government, but in each sept

there is a head, who has attained that position by degrees on

account of some tacitly admitted superiority and commands a

limited respect and some obedience. The young are deferential

to their elders. Offences are punished by the aggrieved

party. Property is communal and theft is only recognized as to

things of absolute necessity, such as arrows, pigs' flesh and

fire. Fire is the one thing they are really careful about,

not knowing how to renew it. A very rude barter exists between

tribes of the same group in regard to articles not locally

obtainable. The religion consists of fear of the spirits of the

wood, the sea, disease and ancestors, and of avoidance of acts

traditionally displeasing to them. There is neither worship

nor propitiation. An anthropomorphic deity, Puluga, is the

cause of all things, but it is not necessary to propitiate

him. There is a vague idea that the "soul" will go somewhere

after death, but there is no heaven nor hell, nor idea of

a corporeal resurrection. There is much faith in dreams,

and in the utterances of certain "wise men," who practise

an embryonic magic and witchcraft. The great amusement of

the Andamanese is a formal night dance, but they are also

fond of simple games. The bows differ altogether with each

group, but the same two kinds of arrows are in general use:

(1) long and ordinary for fishing and other purposes; (2)

short with a detachable head fastened to the shaft by a thong,

which quickly brings pigs up short when shot in the thick

jungle. Bark provides material for string, while baskets and

mats are neatly and stoutly made from canes and buckets out

of bamboo and wood. None of the tribes ever ventures out of

sight of land, and they have no idea of steering by sun or

stars. Their canoes are simply hollowed out of trunks with the

adze and in no other way, and it is the smaller ones which are

outrigged; they do not last long and are not good sea-boats,

and the story of raids on Car Nicobar, out of sight across a

stormy and sea-rippled channel, must be discredited. Honour

is shown to an adult when he dies, by wrapping him in a cloth

and placing him on a platform in a tree instead of burying

him. At such a time the encampment is deserted for three

months. The Andaman languages are extremely interesting

from the philological standpoint. They are agglutinative in

nature, show hardly any signs of syntactical growth though

every indication of long etymological growth, give expression

to only the most direct and the simplest thought, and are purely

colloquial and wanting in the modifications always necessary

for communication by writing. The sense is largely eked out by

manner and action. Mincopie is the first word in Colebrooke's

vocabulary for "Andaman Island, or native country," and

the term--though probably a mishearing on Colebrooke's part

for Mongebe ("I am an Onge," i.e. a member of the

Onge tribe)--has thus become a persistent book-name for the

people. Attempts to civilize the Andamanese have met with

little success either among adults or children. The home

established near Port Blair is used as a sort of free asylum

which the native visits according to his pleasure. The

policy of the government is to leave the Andamanese alone,

while doing what is possible to ameliorate their condition.

Penal System

The point of enduring interest as regards

the Andamans is the penal system, the object of which is to turn

the life-sentence and few long-sentence convicts, who alone are

sent to the settlement, into honest, self-respecting men and

women, by leading them along a continuous course of practice

in self-help and self-restraint, and by offering them every

inducement to take advantage of that practice. After ten years'

graduated labour the convict is given a ticket-of-leave and

becomes self-supporting. He can farm, keep cattle, and marry

or send for his family, but he cannot leave the settlement or be

idle. With approved conduct, however, he may be absolutely

released after twenty to twenty-five years in the settlement;

and throughout that time, though possessing no civil rights,

a quasi-judicial procedure controls all punishments inflicted

upon him, and he is as secure of obtaining justice as if

free. There is an unlimited variety of work for the labouring

convicts, and some of the establishments are on a large

scale. Very few experts are employed in supervision;

practically everything is directed by the officials, who

themselves have first to learn each trade. Under the chief

commissioner, who is the supreme head of the settlement,

are a deputy and a staff of assistant superintendents and

overseers, almost all Europeans, and sub-overseers, who are

natives of India. All the petty supervising establishments

are composed of convicts. The garrison consists of 140

British and 300 Indian troops, with a few local European

volunteers. The police are organized as a military battalion

643 strong. The number of convicts has somewhat diminished

of late years and in 1901 stood at 11,947. The total

population of the settlement, consisting of convicts, their

guards, the supervising, clerical and departmental staff,

with the families of the latter, also a certain number of

ex-convicts and trading settlers and their families, numbered

16,106. The labouring convicts are distributed among four

jails and nineteen stations; the self-supporters in thirty-eight

villages. The elementary education of the convicts' children

is compulsory. There are four hospitals, each under a

resident medical officer, under the general supervision of

a senior officer of the Indian medical service, and medical

aid is given free to the whole population. The net annual

cost of the settlement to the government is about L. 6 per

convict. The harbour of Port Blair is well supplied with

buoys and harbour lights, and is crossed by ferries at fixed

intervals, while there are several launches for hauling local

traffic. On Ross Island there is a lighthouse visible for 19

m. A complete system of signalling by night and day on

the Morse system is worked by the police. Local posts are

frequent, but there is no telegraph and the mails are irregular.

History

It is uncertain whether any of the names of the

islands given by Ptolemy ought to be attached to the Andamans;

yet it is probable that his name itself is traceable in the

Alexandrian geographer. Andaman first appears distinctly

in the Arab notices of the 9th century, already quoted. But

it seems possible that the tradition of marine nomenclature

had never perished; that the 'Agathou daimonos nesos

was really a misunderstanding of some form like Agdaman,

while Nesoi Baroussai survived as Lanka Balus, the

name applied by the Arabs to the Nicobars. The islands

are briefly noticed by Marco Polo, who probably saw without

visiting them, under the name Angamanain, seemingly an

Arabic dual, "The two Angamans," with the exaggerated

but not unnatural picture of the natives, long current,

as dog-faced Anthropophagi. Another notice occurs in the

story of Nicolo Conti (c. 1440), who explains the name to

mean "Island of Gold," and speaks of a lake with peculiar

virtues as existing in it. The name is probably derived

from the Malay Handuman, coming from the ancient Hanuman

(monkey). Later travellers repeat the stories, too well

founded, of the ferocious hostility of the people; of whom we

may instance Cesare Federici (1569), whose narrative is given

in Ramusio, vol. iii. (only in the later editions), and in

Purchas. A good deal is also told of them in the vulgar and

gossiping but useful work of Captain A. Hamilton (1727).

In 1788-1789 the government of Bengal sought to establish

in the Andamans a penal colony, associated with a harbour of

refuge. Two able officers, Colebrooke of the Bengal Engineers,

and Blair of the sea service, were sent to survey and

report. In the sequel the settlement was established by Captain

Blair, in September 1789, on Chatham Island, in the S.E. bay

of the Great Andaman, now called Port Blair, but then Port

Cornwallis. There was much sickness, and after two years,

urged by Admiral Cornwallis, the government transferred

the colony to the N.E. part of Great Andaman, where a naval

arsenal was to be established. With the colony the name also

of Port Cornwallis was transferred to this new locality.

The scheme did ill; and in 1796 the government put an end to

it, owing to the great mortality and the embarrassments of

maintenance. The settlers were finally removed in May

1796. In 1824 Port Cornwallis was the rendezvous of the fleet

carrying the army to the first Burmese war. In 1839, Dr Helfer,

a German savant employed by the Indian government, having

landed in the islands, was attacked and killed. In 1844 the

troop-ships "Briton" and "Runnymede" were driven ashore

here, almost close together. The natives showed their usual

hostility, killing all stragglers. Outrages on shipwrecked

crews continued so rife that the question of occupation had

to be taken up again; and in 1855 a project was formed for

such a settlement, embracing a convict establishment. This

was interrupted by the Indian Mutiny of 1857, but as soon

as the neck of that revolt was broken, it became more urgent

than ever to provide such a resource, on account of the great

number of prisoners falling into British hands. Lord Canning,

therefore, in November 1857, sent a commission, headed by

Dr F. Mouat, to examine and report. The commission reported

favourably, selecting as a site Blair's original Port

Cornwallis, but pointing out and avoiding the vicinity of a

salt swamp which seemed to have been pernicious to the old

colony. To avoid confusion, the name of Port Blair was given

to the new settlement, which was established in the beginning of

1858. For some time sickness and mortality were excessively

large, but the reclamation of swamp and clearance of jungle

on an extensive scale by Colonel Henry Man when in charge

(1868-1870), had a most beneficial effect, and the health of

the settlement has since been notable. The Andaman colony

obtained a tragical notoriety from the murder of the viceroy,

the earl of Mayo, by a Mahommedan convict, when on a visit

to the settlement on the 8th of February 1872. In the same

year the two groups, Andaman and Nicobar, the occupation of

the latter also having been forced on the British government

(in 1869) by the continuance of outrage upon vessels, were

united under a chief commissioner residing at Port Blair.

The Andaman islands were later occupied by Japan during World War II. After the end of the war they briefly returned to British control, before becoming part of the newly independent state of India.

Bibliography

Sir Richard Temple, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands

(Indian Census, 1901); C. B. Kloss, In the Andamans and

Nicobars (1903); E. H. Man, Aboriginal Inhabitants of

the Andaman Islands (1883); M. V. Portman, Record of the

Andamanese (11 volumes MS. in India Office, London, and

Home Department, Calcutta), 1893- 1898, Andamanese Monual

(1887), Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group

of Tribes (1898), and History of our Relations with

the Andamanese (1899); S. Kurz, Vegetation of the Andamans

(1867); G. S. Miller, Mammals of the Andaman and Nicobar

Islands (vol. xxiv. of the Proceedings of the National

Museum, U.S.A.); A. L. Butler, "Birds of the Andamans and

Nicobars" (Proc. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., vols. xii. and

xiii.); and A. Alcock, A Naturalist in Indian Seas (1902).

---

Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed