PATH-MAKING 15 



and anchored before noon next day in the Kvvang-tung 

 Juru. 



From a distance, all the islands of the Archipelago appear to 

 rise to about the same height, — between 500 and 600 feet — pre- 

 senting a fairly level sky-line from north to south, and with the 

 exception of East Island, which shows a white sandy beach, all 

 seem fringed with thickets of mangroves. 



The strait, which is about a mile wide, separates the islands of 

 John and Henry Lawrence, and with its smooth water and low 

 banks, on which the veil of mangrove and jungle, extending to 

 the water's edge, is broken at short intervals by small bluffs of 

 pale clay shale, might easily, but for its brilliant blue colour, be 

 mistaken for a quiet river. 



We landed in the afternoon on the eastern shore, and at once 

 set to work cutting a path, for here was the densest kind of 

 Andaman jungle, and although within it one comes across little 

 patches where the bush is fairly open, it is, on the whole, a wild 

 tangled mass of trunks and branches, bound together by countless 

 ropes of creeping bamboo and thorny rattan. 



Cutting right and left, avoiding a thick bush here and a hang- 

 ing screen of creepers there, perspiring at every step, we forced a 

 sinuous way in from the beach, until, coming upon a well-trodden 

 pig-track, we found progress so much easier, that, with a little 

 chopping now and again, we were able to move about with some 

 degree of freedom, and along the path so slowly made, a long line 

 of traps was set and baited in readiness for night. 



Such a performance is one that regularly occurs during the 

 first visit to each fresh locality in which one collects, and on 

 these occasions the noise caused by chopping away branches and 

 crashing through the bushes very naturally makes the denizens of 

 the jungle conspicuous by their absence. 



Afterwards, however, as you move quietly along the path, with 

 all the faculties freely given to the detection of those various 

 objects to the desire for possession of which your presence is 

 due, the jungle seems a much less lonely place, and after days 

 spent in wandering in its shade, during which a bit more path 



