98 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



limestone, with interbedded layers of argillaceous shales, rising 

 at its highest point to 195 feet above the sea, and covering an 

 area of about one-third of a square mile ; its length being nearly 

 1,700 yards, and its greatest breadth — in the centre, where it 

 runs out abruptly into a long projecting point — rather less than 

 the same number of feet. Mr. Ball remarks that, owing to the 

 great inclination of the strata, and other causes, there is con- 

 siderable risk of destructive landslips ; and if some precaution- 

 ary measures are not adopted, the eventual stability of the island 

 itself may be endangered, by the removal of stones from the 

 face of the cliff for building purposes, and the disintegration of 

 the exposed surface by the sea and other natural influences. 



The indigenous vegetation of Ross has almost entirely given 

 place to ornamental and useful plants, introduced from India, 

 the Malayan Peninsula, and the larger islands. Amongst the 

 trees are cocoa nut palms — which have probably been brought 

 from the Cocos, as they do not appear to be anywhere natives of 

 the Andamans proper — oranges and lemons, with other species of 

 Citrus ; the Bullock's- heart (Anona reticulata), custard-apples 

 (Anona squamosa), guavas (I'sidium pomiftriun etpyriferum), 

 ac.icias of two or three kinds, including the fragraut A. farne- 

 siana, Agati grand iflora, Cassia fistula ; the Mango (Maugifera 

 indica), the Plantaiu (Mu&a paradisiaca,) and the Durian 

 (Durio zibeihinus). There are also numbers of small and beau- 

 tiful trees of Mesua ferrea, a noble and gigantic Calophyllum 

 inophyllum near the Commissariat office, and, round the coast, 

 occasional fine specimens of the common screw-pine (Pandanus 

 verus). Besides these, many flowering plants and a number of 

 so-called weeds, with ten or twelve specimens of grasses, have 

 followed the footsteps of settlement and cultivation, all of which 

 seem to thrive and flourish in the genial climate of this surf- 

 lashed outlying sentinel of Port Blair. 



Peacocks of both species (Pavo cristatus et muticus), as well 

 as the common Indian crow (Corvus spleadens), EstrcJda aman- 

 diva, Acridotheres tristis et fuscus, and Palceornis torquatus t 

 have been introduced since the formation of the colony ; but the 

 amaduvats have disappeared, and the prevailing form of Corvus 

 now seems to be C. andamanensis, though C. culminatus is also 

 found. 



Various genera and species of fishes — many of them brilliantly 

 coloured — are abundantly represented in the blue waters of the 



