I08 OUR VISIT TO THE NICOBARS 



habitants had been very poor and had clearly been living on a subsistence 

 level. The Dana Expedition of 1929 had paid a brief visit to Galathea 

 Bay and a small party had gone ashore, including two young members, 

 Lieutenant Greve and Mr. Bruun. They had found the shore deserted 

 and abandoned. It had the same appearance when we landed with them 

 on this occasion, but we succeeded in finding a solitary inhabited hut. 

 There was nobody in, but pigs and poultry were active about the hut, 

 and propped up against it were some very fine paddles which we should 

 have liked to buy. 



At the western extremity of Galathea Bay is the mouth of the only 

 large river in the Nicobars, the Galathea River. It was on their expedition 

 up this river that the personnel of the old Galathea had their one serious 

 misadventure while in the Nicobars. After many troubles they had reached 

 a large and recently abandoned village some way up the river, but had 

 then been overtaken by a fierce tropical thunderstorm with pouring rain, 

 and forced to spend the night there. That night led to the loss of four 

 lives and the serious illness of 19 other members from Nicobar fever. 

 Protected against malaria as we now were, we planned to emulate their 

 attempt and penetrate up-river by motorboat. However, we soon found 

 that the river-mouth was blocked by a sand-bank, which in view of the 

 heavy swell and short time at our disposal we could not have negotiated. 

 As a matter of fact, the river then was very small, so that it is doubtful 

 whether we should have got very far up it. 



We were consequently obliged to confine our collecting to the immediate 

 vicinity of the bay, where there was quite enough to do. The shore teemed 

 with agile burrowing crabs and fascinating hermit crabs; and the spiral 

 shells of the small cephalopod Spirula lay there in quantities. Inside the 

 forest dead silence reigned. It was a shore forest, consisting mainly of 

 screw pines and having little undergrowth, so that is was possible to move 

 about fairly freely in it. Seemingly, there were neither mammals nor birds, 

 but as soon as we stood still a few birds would emerge from the dense 

 foliage. I brought down a very handsome paradise flycatcher, pure white 

 with black wing-shafts, a blue flycatcher, and various other small birds. 

 While packing a bird, I heard noise coming from the top of a tree, and 

 on looking up saw between 20 and 30 small, squirrel-like mammals, star- 

 ing at the strange creature that was trespassing on their territory. Their 

 quizzical manner of looking at me put me in mind of monkeys. Unfortun- 

 ately, my only weapon was a small fowling-piece, and when I took a shot 

 at them they fled with loud screams into the tree-tops. I heard on my 

 return to the ship that another party had shot two "squirrels", and they 



