THE LANDING-PLACE 11 



some distance off, of the black tip of an eruptive cone, showing 

 above the rim of the crater, which at a nearer view proved to be of 

 igneous basalt, clothed on the outer slopes with a growth of 

 creepers, bushes, and of trees 50 to 60 feet high, frequented by 

 numbers of fruit pigeons. 



On the north-west side of the island the wall of the old crater 

 has been broken down, and a large gap about a hundred yards 

 wide at the base affords an easy means of access to the interior. It 

 is through this opening that the best view of the cone is obtained 

 from seawards. 



As we sailed past the gap that afternoon the scene was one of 

 striking beauty. Against a background of bright blue sky the 

 little island rose from a sea of lapis-lazuli, which ceaselessly dashed 

 white breakers on the rocky shores. The steep brown slopes, part 

 clothed in brilliant green, framed in the cone — a black and solid 

 mass, round which a pair of eagles circled slowly. 



Fortunately for those vessels which may visit the island, there is 

 one place off-shore where soundings can be obtained with the 

 handline, and there we came to anchor in 15 fathoms, a little 

 beach and clump of coconut palms bearing N.N.E., a quarter of a 

 mile away. 



Sails were soon stowed and we rowed off to reconnoitre the gap, 

 which is the only practicable landing-place ; everywhere else the 

 land slopes steeply to the sea. To the south a heavy swell was 

 breaking on the shore, but in the little cove formed here the sea 

 was perfectly calm, and so clear that as we passed into shallower 

 water the coral bottom, 10 fathoms down, was plainly visible. 



A rough wall of lava about a dozen feet high stretches across 

 the opening, and to the left of this, among the stones and boulders 

 of the shore, we found, below high-water mark, a little stream of 

 fresh water trickling to the sea ; it is the only water on the island, 

 and at that time was at a temperature of 97.5" F.* 



* Temperature in 1891 = 103.5. Hume visited the island in 1873 '^^'^ noted 

 140°, while in 1866 the Andaman Committee found the temperature to be 

 between 158° and 163°. In 1857 Dr Mouat landed, and writes of "a natural 

 boiling spring, the waters so extremely hot that they rendered the sea in the 

 immediate neighbourhood warm enough to roast crabs in their shells," and about 



