CHAPTER IV 



A NOVICE IN THE ANDAMANS 



Introduction to the Andamans and to the Investigator. The 

 Coral-reefs of Port Blair Harbour. Initiation into the 

 Complete Art of Deep-sea Dredging. The Wonders of the 

 Tow-net. A Political Venture to the Little Andaman Island. 

 The Coco Islands. 



I SHALL never forget the day, in November 1888, 

 when I took ship at Calcutta to join the R.I. M.S. 

 Investigator, which was then engaged in survey work 

 among the Andaman Islands. 



I had for more than two years been stationed in 

 certain particularly arid parts of the Punjab frontier, 

 where life of any sort, whether animal or vegetable, 

 comes very far short of one's anticipations of the 

 Oriental region, so that the prospect of seeing one 

 of the biological paradises of the East raised in my 

 mind a glow of hope that still fires me as I think of it. 



Nor were my expectations weakened when on the 



fourth day the islands broke in sight, their green, 



forest-clad heights rising out of a clear sapphire sea, a 



snow-white dividing line of reef-surf and coral-beach, 



full of promise, coming into view as we drew closer. 

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