200 ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND INHABITANTS 



The principal cultivations in which convicts and ex-convicts 

 are engaged are paddy, sugar-cane, Indian corn, and turmeric ; 

 coconuts have during the past thirty-five years been extensively 

 planted, and besides the agricultural products previously men- 

 tioned, vegetables and fruits of various kinds are grown. 



The larger industries in which the penal community is 

 engaged in have already been alluded to, but there are many 

 minor employments, the products from which also go towards 

 making the Settlement self-supporting. Amongst these are 

 to be found the manufacture of all kinds of furniture, cane chairs, 

 baskets, many varieties of bamboo-work and ornamental wood- 

 carving, woven articles, from serviettes to saddle-girths and 

 blankets, pottery, rope and mats, silver, tin, brass and iron work, 

 shoemaking, rickshaw and cart building, besides the production 

 of such materials as lime, bricks, and tiles. 



Port Blair is in communication three, and often four times 

 a month, with Calcutta, Madras, and Rangoon, by the vessels of 

 the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company. The distances between 

 the Settlement and the ports named are 796, 780, and 387 

 miles respectively. 



