GREAT ANDAMAN MOUNTAINS 169 



feet at low water, has depths from lo to 14 fathoms throughout 

 the narrower part, and nowhere less than 3 fathoms at low water. 

 The stream is never strong, and the R.I. M.S. Investigator passed 

 through three times while surveying the islands in 1888. 



Homfray Strait cuts off Baratang Island from Middle Andaman, 

 and joins the Andaman at its western mouth. It is intricate and 

 rocky, but has good depths, except at the eastern entrance, where 

 there is a broad bar of 8 feet. The tidal stream is weak, and 

 the narrowest part is 60 yards across. 



The surface of Great Andaman is extremely irregular, and 

 a central range of mountains runs from north to south, with an 

 escarped face on the east, and a sloping declivity on the west, 

 where marshy localities abound. 



The highest point is Saddle Hill (2400 feet) in North 

 Andaman: Mount Harriet (1200 feet) stands on the north shore 

 of Port Blair ; and Ford's Peak, in Rutland Island, rises 1400 feet ; 

 while there are half a dozen unnamed summits with heights 

 between 1000 feet and 1700 feet. 



Narkondam rises 2330 feet, from an oval-shaped base whose 

 greatest diameter is 2 miles, and the crater walls of Barren 

 Island, 2 square miles in area, attain an elevation of 11 58 

 feet. 



Little Andaman, some 25 miles south of Rutland, 23 miles 

 long and 17 miles wide, with an area of about 220 square miles, 

 is, on the contrary, level throughout, and gradually rises to a 

 height of 600 feet in the centre. None of the other islands save 

 Rutland attain this elevation. 



Owing to its shape and conformation, there are no rivers and 

 but few streams on Great Andaman, and during the dry season — 

 January to April — there is some scarcity of water. Several 

 creeks, however, are of sufficient depth to allow passage of boats 

 for some distance into the interior. In the South Andaman 

 the greater part of the drainage runs into the creeks, which 

 ultimately leads off to the eastern shore, and in the North and 

 Middle Andaman the bulk of the drainage seems to flow through 

 gaps in the eastern range. 



