36 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



" Serpentine rocks are found chiefly to the south of Corbyn'a 

 Cove in a south-western direction, and including nearly the whole 

 eastern part of Eutland Island (but also occurring on Termoklee 

 Island). This formation is easily traceable all along the coast by 

 the reddish color of the rocks, or by the brick-colored soil, which 

 originates from its decomposition. The strike and dip are in 

 general the same as that of the grey sandstone. 



" At Bird-nest Cape, where these rocks attain a height of 70 

 feet or more, a cubic structure, similar to that of the common grey 

 sandstone, can be observed. 



" The unaltered rock is mostly of deep green color, as impure 

 serpentine rocks usually are. The stratified portion of the rock, 

 however, which is much more decomposed, exhibits chiefly a 

 reddish brown color, and is very ferruginous in some places. It 

 would be, perhaps, worth smelting, but I saw no limestone at hand. 



" At Macpherson's Straits a dark-green variety of serpentine 

 rock with diallage is seen, not only in isolated rocks in the sea, 

 but also on the low ridge of the coast. 



" Conglomerates, formed of coarse pebbles of quartz, chloritic 

 serpentine and sandstone, have been observed in large quantities 

 at Muddy Creek, at Shoal Bay, and on Termoklee Island. They 

 occur principally in the sea." 



In regard to the Nicobars I shall, in preference to saving 1 any- 

 thing myself, reproduce portions of what Dr. Hochsetter has 

 recorded in regard to their Geology and Physical Geography 

 in the Reise Novara, as translated by Dr. Stoliczka. 



" Cab Nicobar is a low island, the average height of which, 

 above the level of the sea, amounts to about 45 feet ; only two 

 ridges, which may be from 180 to 200 feet high, rise in the 

 interior above the forest, which covers nearly the whole island. The 

 west, south, and east, coasts are flat and sandy, and the north-west 

 and south-east monsoons accumulate gradually higher and higher 

 upon them fragments of corals and shells, which pass over the fring- 

 ing reefs surrounding the whole island. The south coast is in part 

 swampy, only the northern, or rather the north-western, coast, form- 

 ing the shore of the bay of Saui, is precipitous, allowing a view of 

 the geological structure of the island ; the section of this coast is 

 loose coral and shell-sand ; dead coral banks ; indurated rock-beds 

 of dead corals and shell-sand ; plastic-clay with bands of sandstone. 



" The eastern shore of the bay gradually rises from north to 

 south up to a height of about 60 feet, and includes two small 

 lateral bays in which massive banks of a grey clay crop out below 

 upheaved coral banks which form the projecting corners of the cliif. 

 It is very chai'aeteristic that the boundary of calcareous and clay 

 strata on the surface of the coast terrace is at the same time a 

 sharp limit of vegetation, inasmuch as on the clayey ground the 

 cocoa-palm is replaced by Pandanus, Casuarina, and grass, forming 

 locally quite extensive grassy plains. The clay deposits, without 



