KACHAL TYPICAL OF THE TROPICS 109 



stained by the deeper dye, and the vessels are stored for a 

 time to season.* 



The pots vary in size, from a capacity of half a pint to five 

 gallons or more, and also in shape, some having a perfectly straight 

 plain lip, while in others the edge is turned out or rounded, but 

 all are alike in having a more or less rounded base. 



After leaving Teressa, we encountered fresh breezes and 

 squally weather until we anchored in darkness near the shore 

 of Kachal. At daybreak next morning we weighed, and again 

 started — with scarce a breath of wind — for the bay on the west 

 coast where we intended to stay. 



With Kachal we returned again to the tropical island of 

 common type in these seas, for it is entirely jungle-covered, 

 with no traces of grass-land visible. 



On account of their geological structure, the Nicobars fall 

 botanically into two divisions — the northern islands, including 

 perhaps Nankauri, are largely covered with grass, with coco 

 palms and pandani growing in the interior ; while the southern 

 group, consisting of Kachal, with Great and Little Nicobar, are 

 entirely forest-covered. Tilanchong, although belonging to the 

 others by position, should nevertheless be classed with the latter 

 islands. 



Several canoes from a small village on the north-west coast 

 came off to inspect the schooner as we slowly drifted along. 

 Their occupants seemed less prepossessing than those people 

 we had just left, for they looked somewhat dirty in person and 

 were dressed in discarded old clothes, or the cheap cottons 

 and loose trousers supplied by the Chinese. The Nicobarese 

 are not so partial to water as the Malays, and they by no 

 means improve matters by unnecessarily clothing their bodies 

 with cast-off garments and once gaudy cottons, which they 

 never, or rarely, dream of washing. 



We reached West Bay by midda}', and anchored in 2i fathoms. 

 A junk was lying farther in, the fourth we had seen. From 

 the southern shore, coral-reefs project for some distance, both 

 * Vide E. H. Man, /t^z/r. Anthrop. Inst., 1S93, ^'o'- ^^xiii- 



