92 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



catching the fish with his hands as only these islanders can. 

 According to their ideas any fool can plunge into the water 

 and seize a single passing fish, but what does require skill is 

 to plunge and come up with two large fish, the forefinger and 

 thumb of each hand firmly fixed in the eye sockets of a different 

 fish. This, the Nicobarese hold to be something like fishing, 

 and in still water you can hardly keep a Nicobarese in the canoe 

 if he chances to spy two good-sized fishes passing below in 

 such relative positions as to render this feat practicable. 



Rowing about the harbour, what specially struck us (though 

 we had noticed them in our former hurried visit) were the 

 masses of white marl, of which we had seen nothing amongst 

 the southern group, and the extensive grass slopes and grassy 

 hill sides, equally inconspicuous there, which occupy so large a 

 portion of the surfaces of the central islands. 



In the bird line we saw but little, and nothing that we had 

 not noticed on our first visit. 



In the evening we ran out of the harbour and anchored off 

 Katchall, getting a beautiful view of the two conspicuous 

 natural rock arches that stand one on either side of the narrow 

 western entrance of the harbour. Just north of this latter is 

 another very similar opening, which leads into false harbour, 

 a huge shallow land locked lagoon, in Camorta Island, just 

 north of the true harbour, and only separated from it by a 

 ridge of densely-wooded land which in some places is barely 

 a quarter of a mile across. 



Very early on the 11th all landed at Katchall, a rough rugged 

 rocky island, with very little soil, and hence devoid of the 

 little fields, that are elsewhere scattered about the central (and 

 I may now add the northern) islands, but still sufficiently 

 densely clad with high forests, little encumbered by the dense 

 undergrowth of all the southern islands. 



This island is the head-quarters of the greatest villain in the 

 whole group, one Hung-hung-soo, and in my opinion it is hy 

 no means creditable to us that he should not have been hung, 

 hung too, long ago, and that an officer (not an Englishman I 

 am happy to say) still in Government service in the Settle- 

 ment should be able to boast of being on friendly terms 

 with, and of having had, this murderer and ruffian to spend a 

 day with him on board the Government hulk, and of having 

 visited him and slept at his house. 



The Nicobarese as a body are a harmless, good-tempered, 



hospitable race, but just in this central group, a certain small por- 



.tion of the inhabitants became years ago demoralized by constant 



