FORESTERS’ LIFE IN THE ANDAMANS 203 
will interpose their own defenceless bodies between 
the would-be murderer and the yet more defenceless 
woman and children, and who from time to time 
receive their reward in freedom, and return to their 
homes perhaps better citizens than when they left 
them in despair. 
The climate of the Andamans is hot and damp, 
but the winds blow throughout the year from the 
north-east or the south-west, and if a house can be 
secured which stands open to both these breezes, 
there is comfort on returning from work carried on 
under the searching rays of the sun. Twice a fort- 
night the mail-steamer brings letters from the main- 
land, and, now that important news is signalled by 
aerial telegraphy, such a story as that of the 
coronation of His Majesty King Edward VII. being 
celebrated in these islands with joyous ceremony 
some time before it actually occurred will not again 
have opportunity to become current. 
Except in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
Settlement, primeval forest covers the thousand odd 
square miles that comprise the Andamans and 
its archipelago. Where clearances of the overhead 
cover have been made by Nature or by man, a dense 
and impenetrable undergrowth springs up to pre- 
vent the recurrence of the domination of the forest- 
trees, whose seed falls only to be choked by thorns 
and dank foliage; but where that domination is still 
supreme there are aisles of lofty stems that block 
out the sunshine so completely that grass or shrubs 
refuse to grow on the shady ground. There are 
birds and pigs to keep man company in these 
forests. 
