78 SUMMER ISLANDS AND A SUMMER SEA 



with red or yellow, but occasionally they are of a 

 smoky purple colour. 



At a point some 20 miles west of Cape Bluff we 

 began to cross the South Coral Bank, one of a series 

 of banks that forms a sort of broken ''barrier-reef" 

 to the western shore of the Andamans. The water 

 was so intensely clear, and the bottom so marvellously 

 evident, that although we never had less than 9 fathoms 

 beneath us, it seemed to my untrained eye as if we 

 were every moment going to strike. The sea was 

 so unutterably calm that we were able to use the 

 water-glass from the lower platform of the ship's gang- 

 way, and we got some wonderful glimpses of submarine 

 landscape. 



We passed through from the Bay of Bengal to 

 the Andaman Sea by way of the tortuous Middle 

 Strait, which in certain parts of its course is less 

 than 100 yards wide. How we did it I do not know. 

 I only remember, to begin with, a bewildering maze 

 of firths and lochs of turquoise blue, clusters of high 

 green islands, and gleams of snow-white coral sand, 

 and then the ship suddenly left the sea and plunged 

 into virgin forest. The hills closed up behind us, and 

 those ahead of us showed no trace of an opening ; 

 while on either side our yards were almost touching 

 dense, impenetrable jungle through which, as in a trance, 

 we glided on for 10 miles or so, until we ran into an 

 ugly mangrove swamp, and so into the Andaman Sea. 



