No. 2.] BULGER — THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 99 



bay* ; and rare and beautiful creatures constantly reward the 

 researches of the malacologist, even on the shores of Rose itself; 

 but my personal experience does not extend to either of the 

 branches of natural sicence which include these denizens of the 

 deep, and I must refer those desirous of information on both 

 points to papers scattered over the Journals of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal, and Surgeon- Major Day's article on the Fishes of the 

 Andaman Islands, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 

 London for 1870. • 



The sea was curling up into white-lipped wavelets one day in 

 the beginning of November, 1871, when, accompanied by a 

 brother officer, I crossed the bay en route to Mount Harriet, a 

 hill overlooking the harbour, and easy of access from Hope 

 Town, which is a little native village situated in a cove to the 

 westward of Perseverance Point, and nearly opposite to the set- 

 tlement of Chatham. As we left the jetty at Ross, the dark 

 nimbus clouds which had obscured the morning began to break 

 and give place to a fairer sky, and ere we had completed half 

 our voyage, the truant sun peeped out upon us, and shed such a 

 magic light around, that the superb land-locked inlet, with its 



* The following note may perhaps be interesting as evidence of the 

 rapacity and numbers of sharks in these waters. It is condensed 

 from an account written by a brother officer, whose veracity and 

 accuracy are both unimpeachable. 



" The Andaman fishing expedition which you enquire about took 

 place, as you know, during our short sojourn in Port Blair in October, 

 1871 ; and my companions were five convicts — all natives of India. 

 I had great difficulty in pursuading the official in charge of these 

 men to allow me to accompany them, and it was onlv on my promis- 

 ing not to ask them to return before the proper time that he acceded 

 to my request. We left Koss about eleven^o'clock in the forenoon, 

 and w».nt, in the first instance, to a small settlement upon the main 

 island some few miles to the north-west, where we remained about 

 three-quarters of an hour. It was a pretty little spot, but as the 

 boatmen went ashore and left me to take care of the canoe, I was 

 unable to explore it ; and, indeed, the surf was so great that I do not 

 think I could have landed with any degree of comtort. Thence we pro- 

 ceeded to the fishing-ground, about twenty miles further north, which 

 we reached about 4 p.m. In this vicinity, we remained the whole 

 night and part of the next morning — changing our position occa- 

 sionally when we found the sport getting slack. The weather during 

 the day was fine and pleasant, but about sunset the wind rose, and 

 the night subsequently proved rather rough and stormy — much to my 



