THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 95 



eastwards. Boats were now put in requisition, and as the 

 shore was neared, numbers of these same birds Avere seen 

 pecking about on a little sandy beach inside the fringing rocks ; 

 even then no one knew what to make of them. The boats 

 now rowed round the islaud, but the nearer this latter was 

 approached, the more impossible it seemed to effect a landing ; 

 there was nothing but jagged rocks and roaring surf all 

 round. An attempt was made by two of the lascars at differ- 

 ent places to swim ashore with ropes, but this failed, and the 

 men barely escaped drowning. It seemed as if the matter 

 must be given up, when McKirdy, like a true British sailor, 

 declared that he had come to land, and land he would, and get- 

 ting a rope swam to shove, and by strength, pluck, and judgment 

 succeeded in making good his point. Once on shore he was able 

 to pick the very best spot and with the boat anchored astern, and 

 the shore rope made fast to her bows, by paying out and hawling 

 in, it became possible for the rest of the party, choosing their time 

 carefully, to land one by one. It was dangerous work ; the 

 Philosopher got a tremendous cropper but luckily fell in the 

 boat, or he would certainly have been killed, and every one 

 was drenched, but still the landing was effected, and the 

 island's virgin soil trodden for the first time by Europeans. 

 We were specially fortunate ; there are probably not half a 

 dozen days in the year, on which, without a specially devised 

 apparatus, a landing could possibly be effected. 



The island appeared to be almost wholly composed of coral, 

 resting unconformably on a base of sandstone. It was low, 

 nearly level, bore a certain amount of high tree jungle, and a 

 few patches of cocoanut, and was in most places covered by 

 an excessively dense undergrowth of some thorny bramble- 

 like shrub, here and there interspersed with a few open plots 

 of grass. The moment the level of the island was gained, the 

 mystery of the black birds was solved, they were Nicobar 

 Pigeons, and this was par excellence, the home and stronghold 

 of this magnificent bird. Thousands were flying about from 

 tree to tree, or feeding on the seeds of the undergrowth (with 

 which we found their crops mostly full) . Their nests were as 

 thick upon the trees, as ever nests are in a rookery at home. 

 Young ones in every stage of growth, from naked blind things 

 to birds fully fledged, were to be seen in or alongside the 

 nests.* They were perfectly tame at first, and fed about 

 on the ground just like other doves. Though silent birds as 

 individuals, yet from their immense number, their occasional 



* Further particulars are given when treating of this species separately, p. 271. 



