intimate relation to latitude, or in other words to tlic amoiint of range of daily tem- 

 perature; a miuiuium mortality ruling at >Iergui and stations in Southern Tenasserini, 

 bearing a strong clinu^tal correspondence with the Audauians, but a rate rivalling the 

 appalling one prevalent in northern climes being reached at such stations as Akj'ab 

 and Chittagong, where the range of temp(!ratuie is considerable, while at the same 

 time custom and the ignorance of the people causes them to neglect protecting 

 their young children by sutRcient clothing from the inclemency and chills of the 

 morning air. 



Returning, however, to the graphic description of the coast by Mr. Hume, the 

 following extract will give an idea of what yachting is in these seas. "The South 

 Andaman, which we thus coasted for some 14 miles, presented throughout the same 

 characters, a ridge of rocks or reef, on which the surf was breaking lustily, glittering 

 and sparkling in the briglit sun, little strips of the whitest possible coral beaches, 

 fringed and bounded by dense mangrove belts composed of trees of many species, 

 those nearest the water low and of the brightest emerald green, those behind moro 

 lofty and of a bluer tinge, all backed up by the magnificent evergreen forest trees 

 rising tier above tier to the summits of the low ridge of hills (from six to eight 

 hundred feet in elevation) that run down the whole way near the coast. . . . ^Nothing 

 could exceed the beauty of the scene. The straits vary from a quarter to nearly 

 a mile in width, the water still as in some little mountain tarn, clear as crystal, hero 

 green, there blue, of an intensity known only in the tropics, everywhere paved with 

 coral reefs and plateaux clustered over with marvellously coloured sponges, zoophytes 

 and corallines, and haunted by innumerable shoals of still more brilliantly tinted 

 fish; it was like looking down into a garden of another world to that in which my 

 w^ork-day life had passed. On either side, rising from the very bosom of the water, 

 the mangroves stretched a broad unbroken emerald zone around the base of the hills, 

 which overlook, in places almost overhang, the straits throughout, and on the southem 

 shores on Kutland Island rise to an elevation of 2000 feet. Magnificent forests 

 clothe these hills. Huge trees, amongst which the Mimmops indica and HemicycUa 

 andamanica are conspicuous, rise tier above tier in a luxuriance nowhere to be 

 suii)assed ; the foliage is of the most varying tints everywhere, and is relieved by tall 

 straight stems, looking like slender silver columns, supporting a multitudinous-storied 

 hanging garden. In places enormous creepers hang in gigantic garlands and festoons 



from tree to tree, an almost unbroken wreath down half a hill-side We 



anchored for the night in mid-channel ; a soil cool air sprung up, and we were soon 

 enjoying a repast such as only native servants can concoct, al fresco, at half an 

 hour's notice, with none of the means and appliances which the humblest cook in 

 the AVest deems indispensable. "Within five minutes of our anchoring, some of the 

 con-\-ict crew had lines and a little net out, and in another five minutes they had 

 pulled out a couple of large buckets full of miraculously coloured fish, things which, 

 had I merely seen them in paintings, I should have pronounced Turneresquc dreams 

 of piscine impossibilities ; such shapes, such colours, above all such incredible 

 combinations of colours. They were mostly, I think, what arc called rock cods 

 {Serranus), of half a dozen different species, orange, magenta, crimson, blue, groeji, 

 black, huffy, one bright colour spotted with another. . . . There were numbers 

 of other species, but I will not try and describe theui. I have not the rc([uisitc 

 knowledge, and the majority of my readers who had not seen alive the fish that 

 liaunt the coral reefs, would fail to realize or even credit their unearthly beauty. 

 Alas! that ichthyologists have yet to invent a process of preserving unchanged the 

 " hues of paradise" that adorn them. The last thing I heard was our •Geologist' 

 enjoining silence on our ' Invertebrate.' ' Peace,' he said in a low sweet voice, 

 ' 1 would fain be in the land of Nod, where Crustaceans c(!ase from troubling, and 

 even Stick-insec'ts are at rest.' " 



Kot long after this they fell in with two large canoes full of Andanianeso of the 

 Rutland Island tribe, consisting of the chief, his wife and a number of followers, 

 who are thus described : "They were little, square-built, very powerfully made folks, 

 stark naked, only the ladies wore, instead of the traditional fig-leaf, a single small, 

 narrow, linear lanceolate leaf, fixed by a thread, which descended from a ring of 



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