The Great Coco Island. 403 



with trees, the branches of which all lean to the 

 east, showing the force of the south-west monsoon. 

 This island is a great rendezvous for the edible turtle, 

 which throng to the west face, and would be doubt- 

 less as numerous on the east and south faces were it 

 not for the iguana lizards, who dig up their nests 

 and destroy hundreds of thousands of eggs. I used 

 to turn a good many, made an artificial pond for 

 them, and sent them on to Eangoon as opportunity 

 afforded. There was no lack of fish. The Burmese 

 killed as many as we could consume by using 

 torches at night. There were large crayfish, conger 

 eels, and crabs. The islands were infested with the 

 deadly bungarus or banded snake, which was found 

 under stones and rocks on the sea beach, and adders 

 inland. There were a few curlew, thick-kneed 

 plover, a few very few snipe, plenty of teal in the 

 fresh water bheel, and thousands of imperial and 

 Nicobar pigeons. 



When the last settler left there were a good many 

 fowls and ducks left behind, but not one remained ; 

 they had all been destroyed by the big lizards. 



The poultry I took over also suffered greatly from 

 the ravages of these monitors. The root of every 

 mangrove had oysters adhering to it ; not the little 

 things we are accustomed to, but fellows as large as 

 an ordinary plate, and a couple of bivalves sufficed for 

 a currie for two people. Sponges were washed ashore 

 daily and real pearl oysters existed ; but nearly every 

 oyster in the Bay of Bengal has a small pear] in it. 

 I had fully a thousand, but they were all small and 

 all opaque, and I either lost them, thinking them of 

 no value, or they were stolen ; but I have since dis- 



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