1 6 Voyage of the Novara. 



Imperial ship- of- war to those waters, it was naturally wished 

 that she should on her voyage to China visit this group, on 

 whose shores the Austrian flag had once been unfurled as a 

 symbol of possession. On this occasion, however, the object 

 was rather scientific than political. It was intended, so far 

 as the time allotted for visiting these islands and the appli- 

 ances at hand admitted, to undertake inquiries as to the most 

 important geodetical points, together with astronomical, 

 magnetic, and meteorological observations, and at the same 

 time to make investigations and collections of the various 

 objects of natural science, and thus to complete as it were the 

 valuable labours carried out in 1816 by the Danish Expedi- 

 tion to the Nicobar Islands. The following pages are simply 

 limited to giving a popular narrative of our own stay on this 

 interesting island group, while more circumstantial informa- 

 tion of the various scientific results obtained there will be 

 deferred till the appearance of the special works being drawn 

 up by the members, each in his own special section. 



On 25th February, at 10 a.m., the naturalists, accompa- 

 nied by the officers in charge of the scientific apparatus, and 

 the midshipmen, after very considerable difficulty, succeeded < 

 in effecting a landing on the island of Kar-Nicobar, in a bay 

 protected by a coral-reef (by observation 9° 14' 8" N., and 

 920 44^ 4g/r E.), between the villages of Moose and Saoui. At 

 this point the surf beats incessantly over the huge reefs of 

 coral upon a waste of gleaming white sand, which stretches in 

 graceful curves from one point of rock to that next adjoining. 



