PREFACE 



The following pages are the result of an attempt to record a cruise, 

 in a schooner, to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bengal 

 Sea, the main purpose of which was to obtain good representative 

 collections (now in the National Museum, Washington, U.S.A.) of 

 natural history and ethnological objects from the places visited. 

 Special attention was given to the trapping of small mammals, 

 which, comprising the least known section of the island fauna, 

 were the most interesting subject for investigation. Sixteen new 

 varieties were obtained in the Andamans and Nicobars together, 

 thus raising the known mammalian fauna of those islands from 

 twenty-four to forty individuals, while the collections also included 

 ten hitherto undescribed species of birds. All the collecting and 

 preparation was done by my companion, whose guest I was, and 

 myself, for we were accompanied by no native assistants or 

 hunters. Broadly speaking, one half of the day passed in obtain- 

 ing specimens, the other in preserving them ; and such observa- 

 tions as I have been able to chronicle were, for the greater part, 

 made during the periods of actual collecting and the consequent 

 going to and fro. 



In order to give a certain completeness to the account, I have 

 included a more or less general description of the two Archi- 

 pelagoes, their inhabitants, etc. ; the chapters of this nature are 

 partly compiled from the writings of those who had had previous 

 experience of the islands, and for the most part the references 

 have been given. 



I cannot but regard the illustrations, which are a selection 

 from my series of photographs, as the most valuable part of this 

 work, but I hope that my written record, in spite of its imper- 



