970 
A SURVEY SEASOX IN THE NICOBAR ISLANDS ON THE 
R.I.M.S. “INVESTIGATOR,” OCTOBER, 1921, TO MARCH, 1922. 
BY 
Major R. B. Seymour Sewell, I.M.S., B.A., F.A.S.B., 
Surgeon- Naturalist to the Marine Survey of India, and Superintendent, 
Zoological Survey of India. 
( With 4 plates.) 
“ Do you know the pile-built village where the sago-clealers trade — 
Do you know the reek of fish and wet bamboo ? 
Do you know the steaming stillness of the orchid-scented glade 
When the blazoned, bird-winged butterflies flap though ? 
It is there that I am going with my camphor, net and boxes, 
To a gentle yellow pirate that I know — ” 
Kipliny. 
On iny return to India in the middle of September, 1921, I learnt that the 
R.I.M.S. “Investigator” was due to leave Bombay early in October and that 
our destination for the Survey Season, 1921-22, was to be the Nicobar 
Islands or, to be more exact, the central group of islands that en- 
closes Nankauri Harbour. Prior to our sailing the Hon. Secretary of the 
Bombay Natural History Society begged me to contribute to the Journal 
an account of my experiences and I was rash enough to promise that I 
would do my best to comply with his request. I am, however, fully con- 
scious that my contribution to the literature of this locality con-- 
tains little that is new for, in spite of their remote and comparatively 
isolated position on the map, the Nicobar Islands are by no means a 
“terra incognita.” ]\Iany reports and papers dealing with the islands 
and their inhabitants have from time to time been published and in 1902 
a full and graphic description was Avritten by C. Boden Kloss,* Avho spent 
some Aveeks, cruising round these and the neighbouring Andaman Islands. 
Moreover, to do full justice to this extremely interesting locality one needs 
to be something of a geologist and an anthropologist, in addition to liaA-ing 
had far Avider experience as a student of both land and Avater fauna and 
flora than I can lay claim to. 
The R.I.M.S. “ Investigator ” reached Nankauri Harbour, Avhere we Avere 
destined to spend the next four months, about noon on October 26th. As Ave 
approached our destination Ave passed several islands belonging to the group, 
runnmg to the East of Choura, Teressa and Bompoka. We then 
entered Revello Channel betAveen Camorta and Kachal. Continuing our 
course to the southward, \\'e passed the narroAV cliff-bound entrance to 
Expedition Harbour, at one time a place of ill-repute as it was the head- 
quarters of the notorious pirate Captain Kidd, and finally we arrived off 
the western entrance to Nankauri Harbour. We Avere thus able at the very 
start of our labours to get a general impression of the different characters of the 
islands and to compare, for instance, the thickly -Avooded slopes of Kachal with 
the open rolling grass-lands of Camorta. 
Horsburghf AATiting in 1836, describes Nankauri Harbour as follows : — 
“ Nancoury Harbour in lat. 8® 0" N., long. 93° 41' E., distant from the E. 
side of Katchall 4 or 5 miles, formed by a narroAV channel that separates 
the Island Nancoury from the south part of the Island Carmorta, is A^ery 
capacious and Avill shelter a large fleet of ships from all Avinds. Having 
* “ In the Andamans and Nicobars,” published by John Murra 3 ", London. 
I Horsburgh’s East Indian Directory, Vol. II., 1836. 
