CHAPTER XIII 



GREAT NICOBAR — WEST COAST 



Pulo Kunyi — Area of Great Nicobar — Mountains — Rivers — The Village — The 

 Shorn Peii — Casuarina Bay — An ingenious "Dog-hobble" — In the Jungle 

 — A Shorn Peii Village — Men of the Shorn Pen — A lazy Morning — The 

 Shorn Pen again — Their Similarity to the Nicobarese — Food — Implements 

 — Cooking - vessel — The Dagmar River — Casuarina Bay — Pulo Nyur — 

 Water — A Boat Expedition — The Alexandra River — Shorn Peii Villages — 

 Kopenheat — More Shom Pen — Elephantiasis — Pet Monkeys — Anchorage. 



''March 17, 1901. — At 6.30 A.M. both junks left, and we followed 

 half an hour later. The breeze was light, the sea smooth, and 

 the Chinese kept ahead all the way : in fact, we only caught up 

 the smaller just abreast of Pulo* Kunyi, our destination on 

 the west coast, where we anchored shortly after the big junk 

 about midday ; the other boat did not stop, but sailed on for 

 another village more to the south. 



" Great Nicobar is the southernmost and the largest of the 

 islands of the group, having a length of 30 miles north and 

 south, and a breadth of from 7 to 14 miles, while the area is 334 

 square miles. The highest part of the island is that to the 

 north, where Mount Thuillier attains an altitude of 2105 ^'^^t. 

 A continuous range of hills runs down the east side of the 

 island close to the coast, making the surface hilly ; and near 

 the centre a range 1333 feet high extends crossways in an 

 E.N.E. direction. On the west side the hills are much more 



* Pulo {Malay, island), on the west coast, is probably a mispronunciation of 

 Telok {Malay, bay), for at only one of the small anchorages so designated is 

 there an island at all. 



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