138 KONDUL AND GREAT NICOBAR 



Next day we extended our search still farther, and ascended 

 a little river, to which the name of " Jubilee " has been given by 

 the surveyors. We rowed up several arms of this stream 

 that wound to and fro in the mangroves, but only found a small 

 fishing weir constructed of rattans. The muddy shores swarmed 

 with water-birds — herons, whimbrel, redshanks, and others — and 

 we surprised a monstrous crocodile, little less than 20 feet long, 

 who rushed into the stream long before our guns were ready. 

 Returning to the mouth, we landed and walked for a couple of 

 miles along the beach ; but the shore was everywhere covered 

 with dense tangled scrub, behind which lay the swamps of the 

 river. 



On the last day of our stay, a junk arrived from Dring, 

 where it had taken in a cargo of coconuts. It was handled 

 very clumsily, and nearly ran on the reef before the anchor was 

 down, eventually having to make sail again and beat up to a 

 more suitable place. Considering the happy-go-lucky manner 

 in which these junks are navigated, it must be admitted that 

 they have good fortune — they have a compass, indeed, but all 

 those we met were totally unprovided with charts. 



Our mornings in this place were spent in searching for Shom 

 Pen ; the afternoons were passed in adding to the collections. The 

 traps produced a couple of rats only ; but we obtained several speci- 

 mens of the storkbilled kingfisher, which was common about the 

 shores of the bay. Several turtle were observed on the sea, but 

 the harpoon never being at hand when requisite, they always 

 escaped unmolested. 



Possibly because of the proximity of high land — for Mount 

 Thuillier, 2100 feet, the highest point of the Nicobars, rises near 

 the northern end of the island — a good deal of rain fell every day, 

 and somewhat spoiled the enjoyment of wandering in the jungle. 

 At night when we lay in Ganges Harbour, it was nearly always 

 calm, and many mosquitoes came from shore to plague us. 



Traps were set on the shore throughout our stay, and we thus 

 obtained a specimen of a new shrew {Crocidura nicobaricd), the 

 largest known Oriental member of the sub-genus ; while two rats 



