90 NANKAURI 



manufactured a new kind of cocktail from the medical stores — 

 tincture of cardamoms, essence of ginger, sugar, and water, with 

 a few spoonsful of rum to give the mixture a bouquet. This 

 fiery liquid was received with some suspicion at first ; 

 but when I told them it was the favourite tipple of the C.C, 

 at Port Blair (may I be forgiven), Tanamara and his brother — 

 it was too stiff for the others — drank it down, although the 

 tears stood in their eyes." 



Of the fauna, we obtained from day to day little of interest : 

 the jungle was without paths, and too thick even to see much 

 in. No rats were trapped, but one specimen was brought us 

 in a bottle by a native, and this has proved to be Mus alex- 

 andrinus, totally unrecorded until now from the Andamans 

 or Nicobars. Pigeons were common, but megapodes scarce, 

 and the only one obtained was caught in a trap. The 

 vicinity of the harbour, though a somewhat unproductive 

 hunting-ground for the ornithologist, for those interested in the 

 natives, is, like Kar Nicobar, a most satisfactory locality. 



Nankauri is a heart-shaped island, with an area of 19 square 

 miles, and a maximum height of 534 feet. The bed rock con- 

 sists of serpentinous magnesian, which is exposed in places. It 

 is covered by a plastic white or yellowish clay and clay marl, 

 with intervening beds of quartz sandstone, formed, like the 

 clay, by the disintegration of the plutonic rock. The clay beds 

 are similar to those which cover most of the northern islands, 

 and contain silica, alumina, magnesia, and iron, but usually no 

 lime, except in the form of gypsum, found in crevices. Portions 

 of the clay cliffs exposed to the sun are covered with a fine 

 efflorescence of sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts). Professor 

 Ehrenberg found in 1850, on examining specimens sent him 

 by Dr Rink {Galathea Expedition), that this formation is a 

 polycistina clay similar to that of Barbadoes. 



About one-third of the island is covered with grass : a belt 

 of forest runs all round the coast, but in the interior is restricted 

 to the valleys and more sheltered slopes. The most useful 

 species are : Garcinias, Calophyllums, Myristica irya^ which 



