42 Voyage of the Novara. 



forest. A youthful native, of the most elegant and s}Tnme- 

 trical proportions, followed us at a long interval, but disap- 

 peared finally in the woods. We wandered along in deep 

 shadow between lofty colossal banyan trees with hundreds of 

 stems, and trunks interlaced with enormous branches of ivy, 

 from whose summits hung down lianas of all sizes and dimen- 

 sions, by which one might have clambered to the top as though 

 by a rope, between trees with smooth and glossy, or scarred 

 and rugged, bark, which were thickly overgrow^n w^ith parasiti- 

 cal plants. Enormous crabs, with fiery red claw^s, and bodies of 

 the most lovely blue-black, fled before us to their Im^king 

 places in the depth of the forest. On right and left amid the 

 parched foliage was heard the rustling of lizards, and from 

 the summits of the imposing forest trees resounded the musi- 

 cal hum of swarms of cicada^ while green and rose-coloured 

 parrots flew shrieking from branch to branch, and from the 

 boughs and tendinis was heard the call of the Mania, or the 

 cooing, murmm-ing love-note of the great Nicobar wood-pigeon. 

 Gradually the noise of the surf became once more audible, 

 like distant thunder, just where a few cocoa-nut palms and 

 screw pmes mingled with the laurel trees around. AYe had 

 reached the beach again. 



The same day, towards 4 p. m., the frigate quitted the 

 south coast of Kar-Nicobar, and steered in a S.S.E. direction 

 towards the little island of Batte-Malve, about twenty-one 

 miles distant, in the neighbourhood of which we kept beating 

 about the whole of the following day, without being able, in 



