loo Voyage of the Novara. 



At present the chief product of the islands is the cocoa-nut 

 pahn, which grows for the most part on the sea-shore, so far 

 as the coral-sand reaches. Within the same limits is the ex- 

 istence of the inhabitants confined, destitute as they are of 

 industry or the capacity to cultivate the soil. This invalu- 

 able plant seldom extends far into the interior, and from this 

 circumstance was named by a celebrated German traveller 

 and botanist, Martins, the " Sea-shore palm," It is, however, 

 as yet undecided whether the cocoa-palm is indigenous to the 

 Nicobar Islands, or whether, cast on these shores by the waves, 

 it has, by virtue of its well-known property of putting forth 

 shoots even in salt-water, gradually propagated itself without 

 any assistance from man. 



It is said that the profit realized by those engaged in the 

 trade in these nuts, amounts to from 20 to 40 per cent., and 

 could greatly be increased, if, as for example in Ceylon, 

 oil-presses were erected, by means of which the expense of 

 transporting the heavy bulky loads of nuts would be econo- 

 mised, the oil being exported direct. On the more northerly 

 islands the cocoa forest embraces proportionately a far larger 

 area, those more to the south being much less abundantly 

 supplied, especially Greater Nicobar, where there is hardly 

 any. Accordingly the more northerly islands are much the 

 more densely peopled, and the cocoa-palms are there sub- 

 divided as property, while on the southern islands they seem 

 to be freely enjoyed in common. 



Next in importance to the cocoa-nut pahn, as a means of 



