96 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



Many years ago* the Honourable East-India Company formed 

 a settlement at Port Cornwallis, a noble harbour of the north 

 island, but it was soon afterwardsf abandoned on account of its 

 extreme unhealthiness, and, since then, until the establishment 

 of the present penal colony at Port Blair, where the interest of 

 the group is now centred, the Andamans were left to the uure- 

 strained dominion of wild and unfettered nature. 



The approach to Port BlairJ from the northward is very 

 charming — the vessel threading her way through the blue waters 

 of Diligence Strait, with a chain of picturesque islands upon one 

 side, and the so-called mainland on the other ; — all more or less 

 covered with a dense, rich forest, which is usually of the grandest 

 description, and remarkable for the conspicuous, straight stems 

 of its lofty trees. Every summit and every headland seems 

 crowned with these vegetable giants — every valley and ravine is 

 choked with an impenetrable network of thronging branches and 

 irrepressible climbers, and even the very bays and creeks are 

 brilliantly green with the vivid foliage of the mangrove. 



During the passage of this exquisite channel, fresh views of 

 the magnificently forest-clad shores are incessantly revealing 

 themselves to the delighted gaze of the traveller — each one 

 wilder, brighter and more fascinating than the last, until their 

 attractions culminate in the superb beauty of Port Blair itself, 

 which is, perhaps, one of the loveliest bays in the whole world. 

 It is a large, irregularly-shaped inlet at the south eastern end 

 of the Great Andaman, indenting the coast to the westward, 

 and then bending downwards to the south. Within its bounda- 

 ries are most of the settlements of the colony, but the chief 

 station is the little island of Ross, which lies athwart the 

 entrance of the harbour, and, notwithstanding its small size, 

 contains nearly all the principal public buildings, including the 

 church, Government House, and the barracks. 



To the westward of Boss, at a distance of rather less than 

 three miles, is another smaller island called Chatham, where a 

 proportion of the convicts are quartered ; and, about the same 

 distance further to the southward — still within the encircling 

 arms of the beautiful sound — the chief prison of the station is 

 reached. It stands upon Viper Island, and is most carefully 

 guarded — a highly necessary precaution, for it contains the very 



* 1791. t 1796. t Formerly called Port Chatham. 



