64 KAR MCOBAR 



must be obeyed. The mission house was then burnt down, and 

 a fence erected round the spot, inside which no native will step. 

 It is unholy ground, they say, where the devil first landed ; for, 

 until the missionaries brought him with them, he had never 

 been in the island, or knew where it was. I was told that a 

 day is now set apart in the year when all the inhabitants assemble 

 to drive the devil out of the island." 



On the fourth morning of our visit our sympathy was due 

 to Mr Solomon on the occasion of his wife's death — an event 

 that occurred with some suddenness as the result of an apoplectic 

 fit. One sequel to this was, that on the following night the 

 entire village was engaged in expelling the spirit of the deceased 

 from the neighbourhood with much ceremony and noise. 



Kar Nicobar has an area of about 50 square miles, with a 

 surface that is exceedingly level, as the highest point it attains 

 is barely 200 feet above the sea-level ; only in the north does 

 the coast rise in low cliffs, and all round the shore is a fringe of 

 coral-reef 



The geological formation consists of a foundation of serpen- 

 tine, on which rest thick clay beds and la}^ers of sandstone, 

 exposed in parts, and in some places overlaid by upheaved coral 

 banks, the whole having acquired a covering of sandy alluvium 

 and drift, which was deposited before upheaval, with an additional 

 layer of vegetable debris since accumulated. 



With the exception of an indigenous coco palm zone, where 

 coralline alluvium has formed, the beach forest of Casuarinas, 

 Barringtonias, Ficus, Pandani, Hibiscus, Calophyllums, and other 

 characteristic species, and irregular strips of inland forests, con- 

 taining canebrake and bamboo, with Terminalias and Sterculias, 

 the whole island appears to be covered with stretches of coarse 

 lallang grass, dotted with tall screw - pines {Pandanus mellori), 

 bearing the large globular fruit that supplies the inhabitants 

 with their staple food ; or with the natives' plantations of coconuts, 

 betel, plantains, and yams. The nature of the forests depends 

 entirely on the character of the soil and on the composition of 

 the underlying rock. 



