EAST-INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 233 



chasms in the reef round the island, admitting boats to the 

 watering-place, and that the southern islet consists of a mass 

 of sand and coral.— -Pulo Pisang : Horsburgh (vol. ii. p. 86) 

 says that the rocky coral-bank, which stretches about 40 

 yards from the shore, is steep all round: in a chart, also, 

 which I have seen, the island is represented as regularly fringed. 

 — Pulo Mintao is lined with reefs on its west side (Horsburgh, 

 vol. ii. p. 107). — Pulo BaniaTc : the same authority (vol. ii. 

 p. 105), speaking of a part, says it is faced with coral rocks. — 

 Minguin (3° 36' N.) : a coral reef fronts this place, and projects 

 into the sea nearly a quarter of a mile (Notices of the Indian 

 Archipelago, published at Singapore, p. 105). — Pulo Brassa 

 (5° 46' N.) : a reef surrounds it at a cable's length (Horsburgh, 

 vol. ii. p. 60). I have coloured all the above specified points 

 red. I may here add, that both Horsburgh and Mr. Moor (in 

 the Notices just alluded to) frequently speak of the numerous 

 reefs and banks of coral on the west coast of Sumatra ; but 

 they nowhere have the structure of a barrier-reef, and Marsden 

 (History of Sumatra) states that where the coast is flat, the 

 fringing-reefs extend far from it. The northern and southern 

 points, and the greater part of the east coast, are low, and 

 faced with mud banks, and therefore without coral. 



Nicobar Islands. — The chart represents the islands of this 

 group as fringed by reefs. With regard to Great Nicobar, 

 Captain Moresby informs me that it is fringed by reefs of coral, 

 extending between 200 and 300 yards from the shore. The 

 Northern JSficobars appear so regularly fringed in the published 

 charts, that I have no doubt the reefs are of coral. This group, 

 therefore, is coloured red. 



Andaman Islands. — From an examination of the MS. 

 chart, on a large scale, of this island, by Captain Arch. Blair, in 

 the Admiralty, several portions of the coast appear fringed; 

 and as Horsburgh speaks of coral-reefs being numerous in the 

 vicinity of these islands, I should have coloured them red, had 

 not some expressions in a paper in the Asiatic Researches 



