THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 41 



spheroidal coucretions are to be observed showing on the soft 

 weathered surface like cannon balls. No trace of fossils could be 

 found. The massive banks have thin-bedded sandy slates inter- 

 stratified. The strata strike from S. S. E. to N. N. W., dipping 

 to east at an angle of 45°. Dr. Eink mentions a fossil resin in the 

 sandstone of Milu. 



" Pulo Milu was particularly instructive for me, because the depen- 

 dence of the vegetation on the soil and its geological basis could 

 be perfectly well recognised. The vegetation and the geological 

 formation of the ground stand in the closest relation to each other. 

 The sandstone hills are covered with jungle ; the coral (calcareous) 

 ground with high forest trees ; the saline calcareous sandy ground 

 is occupied by cocoa-palms, and in the fresh water swamp on the 

 declivity of the hill range which resembles in its curve a horse shoe, 

 thrives the finest forest of Pandanus which we have seen on the 

 Nicobar Islands. 



" We have not visited the coast of Little Nicobar, the mountains 

 of which rise to an elevation of 1,000 feet above the sea. 



" Kondul, — between Little and Great Nicobar, — consists of a 

 hilly ridge, one and a half nautical miles long and half mile broad ; 

 its strata strike N. N. W., and dip at 70° towards east. The 

 western side is the precipitous one. The strata represent au 

 alternation of more or less sandy or clayey beds. The sandstone 

 predominates, it is yellowish-white, with ferruginous reddish-brown 

 particles. The clayey beds partly consist of a greasy plastic clay, 

 partly of a crumbling yellowish clay marl, with intercalated thin- 

 bedded sandy slates. The only organic remains which I found 

 were indistinct traces of algae and small rolled fragments of coal. 



" Great Nicobar. — What shall I report of Great Nicobar ? With 

 the exception of some sandstone hills on the northern coast, and 

 the sandstone ranges on the eastern side of the Galatea Bay 

 in the south, I have not seen anything. Great Nicobar, with its 

 mountains rising up to 2,000 feet, is geologically quite a terra 

 incognita. 



"A very remarkable earthquake, which is said to have lasted 

 from the 3 1st of October to the 5th December 1847, on the Nicobar 

 Islands, at which time also earthquakes occurred in the middle 

 and western part of Java, is described from the Penang Gazette in 

 Junglmlin's Java (part II, p. 940). On this occasion fire is said 

 to have been seen on one of the mountains of Great Nicobar. 



" Can the highest mountain of Great Nicobar be a volcano ? 

 Its form is that of a volcano, but as Junghuhn says that one could 

 land on the southern coast of Java, wander about many days 

 among sandstone and slate rocks, without obtaining through any 

 of the phenomena even a trace of the stupendous volcanic nature 

 of Java ; in the same way there may be in the interior of Great 

 Nicobar rock-formations hidden, of which one does not get an 

 idea along the coast. However, I do not attach any importance 

 to the rumour that fire has been seen on Great Nicobar, though 



