THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OP BENGAL. 103 



When daylight dawned next day (22nd) Barren Island 

 was in sight and distant 3 or 4 miles to the north. As first seen it 

 appeared to be more or less well wooded, in shape a truncated 

 cone with a broad nearly level top. As we drew nearer, pursu- 

 ing a somewhat circular course, we found, when we had placed 

 the island (by this time only about a mile off), south-east of us, 

 that what we had first seen was only the outer shell of the 

 island which consisted, broadly speaking, of a hollow cone about 

 If miles in diameter externally and originally probably some 

 1,700 feet high, but now reduced, by the loss of the upper portions, 

 to between 600 and 1 ,000 feet, the height of the upper edge of the 

 shell varying in different places. This edge was in some places 

 sharp and narrow, in some attained a considerable breadth. At 

 its base the shell may have been from four to six hundred yards in 

 breadth, and it enclosed a nearly circular valley, raised about 

 50 feet above the level of the sea, averaging, as far as I could 

 guess, about a mile and a quarter in diameter. In the middle 

 of this rose a most perfect and symmetrical cone, with a diameter 

 at base of about half a mile. The cone appeared to be ever so 

 slightly truncated, and from its summit a little twisting whisp 

 of white smoke kept curling away up into the blue sky. The 

 height of the cone above the sea level may be taken as perhaps 

 950 feet, the average angle of inclination of its sides is about 

 32° 30', but it looks to be a great deal steeper than these figures 

 would indicate, and had the angle not been carefully measured 

 by some of Our own party as well as by previous visitors, I 

 should, I think, have guessed it at at least 45°. 



I first of all rowed round the island, keeping as close in as the 

 surf breaking on the shore would permit. Everywhere, 

 except at the one spot where we later landed, the outer face of 

 the exterior cone-shell goes straight down into the water, under 

 which it dips very rapidly, so that while still within gun shot of 

 the blocks of weathered lava and basalt, that fringe in most places 

 the water line, one is in blue water, and no bottom with a four- 

 teen fathom line. Half a mile from the shore there is no 

 bottom with 250 fathoms. In most places the precipitous outer 

 fkce of the external shell is thicklv wooded, but here and there 

 large bare grey patches mark extensive slips of ash and tufa. 

 On the trees, high above us, and well out of shot, numbers of 

 the beautiful Pied Fruit-pigeon (C. bicolor) were sunning them- 

 selves, or flitting hither and thither in twos and threes. They 

 were very numerous. I dare say I saw a thousand divring the 

 the two to three hours that it took us to row round the island. 

 Large parties of the Andaman Red-cheeked Paroquet (P. affinis) 



