CHAPTER VI
TILANCHONG
Batti Malv—Tilanchong—Novara Bay—Terrapin Bay—Form and Area of Tilanchong—Birds—Megapodes—A Swamp—Crocodile—Megapode Mound—Wreck and Death of Captain Owen, 1708—We leave Tilanchong—Foul Ground—Kamorta.
On our course to Tilanchong, we passed, after leaving the south end of Kar Nicobar, within a few miles of the little island of Batti Malv. It is scarcely more than a mile in length, and except towards the N.W., where it is somewhat flattened, falls steeply to the sea from a height of 150 feet. It is uninhabited, but the low jungle with which it is covered is the abode of countless numbers of pigeons—principally of the Nicobar variety—which are said to be so tame and fearless that they can be killed with sticks.
A little later Teressa hove in sight, a grey cloud on the horizon, and soon after we caught sight of our destination right ahead. It was midnight before the island was reached, and not caring to find an anchorage in the dark, we drifted gently northward under jib and mainsail, until at daybreak we were opposite the extreme point, where we turned and ran slowly south, keeping close inshore.
TERRAPIN BAY, TILANCHONG.
All the way along until the centre is reached, the island, 500 feet high and nowhere more than a mile and a half broad, rises in almost precipitous cliffs of serpentine, with deep water at their feet, while the principal vegetation consists of thickets of pandanus in the gullies, and here and there, in spite of the rocky ground, patches of luxuriant forest. We passed three small beaches, above which grew a few coco palms, and then came to Novara Bay, about 3 miles from the north end of the island, where the Austrian frigate anchored in 1858. It was, however, on account of the steepness of the land, an impracticable place for collecting. South of this point the island is everywhere covered with dense jungle, and for the next 4 miles expands to a breadth of more than a mile, attaining in the centre its greatest elevation in Maharani Peak, a little over 1000 feet in height. A short distance further on, and opposite two rocky islets, each about 80 feet high, we found a good anchorage, which, being unnamed on the chart, was promptly christened "Terrapin Bay." It affords fair protection in the north-east monsoon, and shoals gradually from 12 fathoms to the beach. The latter is about three-quarters of a mile long, and is divided by a huge mass of rocks covered with casuarina trees, behind which is a small stream of brackish water. Numerous coco palms shade the beach, and beyond them is a stretch of flat, jungle-covered land. Good water may be obtained at a little sandy spot beyond the rocks forming the northern point of the bay. There is also an anchorage on the other side of the island in Castle Bay.
Tilanchong is 9 miles long and 1¼ miles broad at its widest point, and has an area of about 7 square miles. It is rocky, and everywhere covered with jungle, except in the north, and in shape resembles a flying bird with the north and south extremities as wings, and the broader part in the centre, head, and body.
Our landing at midday was a pleasant contrast to the experiences of Kar Nicobar; the sea was fairly calm, and damage to guns and ammunition was no longer to be feared. On entering the jungle, which at first was somewhat thin, we were immediately struck by the extreme fearlessness of the birds, and the immense number of lizards, of a species peculiar to this island (Gonyocephalus humeii), which abounded everywhere. Every tree-trunk in the forest was the resting-place of two or three of the latter, and as one moved along it was to an accompaniment of scurrying reptiles that dropped from the adjacent branches and darted off to a less immediate neighbourhood. Especially did they swarm in the jungle growing on the dry coral sand above the beach. Besides this small species we found a Varanus lizard, 5 to 6 feet long—very common. We frequently saw them, or heard their noisy rush through the bushes, as, disturbed by our approach, they galloped out of danger. Of the birds, the splendid fruit-pigeons (Carpophaga insularis), generally so wary and unapproachable, denizens of the highest tree-tops, were so unsuspicious that time after time we knocked them over with a pinch of dust shot, and parrots and Nicobar pigeons were obtained with almost equal ease. The latter, whose range extends from these islands eastward to the Solomons, are extremely beautiful birds. The feet are plum-coloured, and the stumpy tail, which is almost hidden by the wings, is snow-white. The head and neck are a delicate grey, while the long, flowing hackles and the rest of the plumage are of a glorious metallic green, iridescent in the sunlight, with shining tints of gold, purple, and blue.
We had not long separated before I caught sight of two megapodes scuttling through the bushes—dull-brown birds about the size of a six-months'-old chicken. They disappeared before I could shoot, but, close by to where they had been, I found one of their laying-places, a mound of fresh earth about 4 feet high and 12 feet in diameter, disturbed by recent working.
For a few hundred yards beyond the beach the soil is very light and friable, a mixture of vegetable loam and disintegrated coral; but behind this it becomes swampy, supporting a densely-matted growth, and while collecting amongst this, I lost my bearings and spent a warm half-hour cutting a way back to the more open forest in the vicinity of the boat.
A MEGAPODE.
"January 30.—This morning got my first megapode. Soon after landing, I saw a Nicobar pigeon on the ground, and while stalking it to get a close shot, noticed near by three birds, of much the same size, dancing about amongst some bushes. They were out of sight most of the time, but I 'browned' the place with a heavy charge, and running up found a cock megapode lying dead. In appearance the bird is not unlike a partridge, though larger, and it has the same drooping tail; the feet, however, are out of all proportion, and are remarkable for their extraordinary strength and size; the plumage is olive-brown in colour, except on the head, which is thinly covered with pale greyish feathers, while the cheeks are naked and of a bright vermilion.
"Going further south than yesterday, I found beyond the rock, in the middle of the beach, what was probably once a fair-sized lagoon, but is now an open swamp nearly overgrown with grass and nipah palms. Several small water-birds and a couple of herons were flying about, and of the latter I obtained a white variety.
"We spent about an hour on shore in the afternoon and saw some more megapodes, but failed to get a shot at them: they frequent the open jungle directly bordering the shore, where the soil is so light that they can build their mounds with ease."
"January 31.—On leaving the jheel this morning, as I walked over the rise of ground that separates it from the sea, I saw a crocodile lying half-in and half-out of the water, but before I could get near enough for a shot-cartridge to take effect he turned and swam off; as he rose and fell with the waves, he looked like a log of wood, but all the while made steadily seaward; he was about 10 feet long, and brilliantly marked with yellow.
"In the afternoon I took the camera ashore to get photos of a nest-mound. Just as I was entering the jungle by the mound, I noticed that earth was being thrown in a continuous shower from the top. Soon a bird ran out from a depression there; I shot it, and at the noise another jumped out for a moment and then went on digging, but appearing again a few seconds later, I got it also. It was about to lay, but the shot had unfortunately broken the egg: there is no external difference in the appearance of the sexes, but these were a pair, and it is therefore evident that when the hen is about to deposit the egg, the male assists in excavating the hole in which it is to be buried for incubation. The mound on which they were busy was between 7 and 8 feet high, and rather more than 100 feet in circumference, and had a large coco palm growing through the centre. It would certainly be the work of a number of birds, and must have taken many years to build."
We got four more megapodes on February 1, one of them containing an unbroken egg of a size remarkable for so small a bird; it measured 3⅜ inches by 23⁄16 inches.[30] The shell is very thick, and when new of a pinkish colour, which changes in the earth to a dirty buff. The temperature of a nest-mound, which we dug into without success in a search for eggs, rapidly increased towards the centre: it was composed of light sandy soil, with apparently no addition of leaves or grass other than that lying about on the earth employed by the birds; the species does not seem purposely to include vegetable matter for causing heat by fermentation.
We failed, whilst here, to obtain a single specimen of a rat; the island is much cut up with holes, high and low, but they are those of crabs, who here also—as on Barren Island and in Kar Nicobar—made off with our baits, leaving behind in some of the traps a quarry we did not at all desire. The only mammal obtained was a large fruit-bat (Pteropus nicobaricus), of which Abbott found a camp up the stream and shot several for specimens. Tracks of pig were seen.
A MEGAPODE MOUND.
The island is uninhabited, and seems to have been in the same state for some time. In Hamilton's Voyages some account is given of the adventures of a shipwrecked crew, whose vessel, commanded by a Captain Owen, was lost there in 1708. They found the place unpeopled, and, making fires in the night, were taken off by several canoes that came across from the Nankauri group.
Their further adventures, although more properly appertaining to the history of the central islands of the Nicobars, may as well, for the sake of continuity, be given here.
"The natives," writes Hamilton, "... very courteously carried the shipwrecked men to their islands of Ning and Goury, with what little things they had saved of their apparel and other necessaries.
"The captain had saved a broken knife about four inches long in the blade, and he having laid it carelessly by, one of the natives made bold to take it, but did not offer to hide it. The captain, finding his knife in the poor native's hand, took it from him and bestowed some kicks and blows on him for his ill manners, which were taken very ill, for all in general showed they were dissatisfied with the action; and the shipwrecked men could observe contention arising among those who were their benefactors in bringing them to the island, and others who were not concerned in it: however, next day, as the captain was sitting under a tree at dinner, there came about a dozen of the natives towards him and saluted him with a shower of darts made of heavy wood, with their points hardened in the fire, and so he expired in a moment.
"How far they had a mind to pursue their resentment I know not, but the benefactors of the shipwrecked men kept guard about their house till next day, and then presented them with two canoes, and fitted them with outleagers to keep them from overturning, and put some water in pots, some coconuts and dry fish, and pointed to them to be immediately gone, which they did.
"Being six in company, they divided equally, and steered their course for Junkceylon, but in the way one of the boats lost her outleager and drowned all her crew. The rest arrived safely, and I carried them afterwards to Masulipatam."
People from Kamorta, from which it can be seen, and who own the plantations on it, come to the island from time to time for the sake of the coconuts, of which there are a fair quantity, and we found traces of visitors in the remains of two tumble-down huts and a liberal scattering of pigs' skulls.
We weighed anchor at 10 a.m., but it was an hour and a half later before we passed the two off-lying islets, for, every few seconds, flaws of wind, coming over the high land, so changed in force and direction that we could get no steerage way, but helplessly boxed the compass all over the bay before we caught a steady breeze. We found deep water between the islets close to the southernmost; everywhere else the ground seemed foul. With a 3-knot breeze we sailed along the western shore, which at this end is much lower than the north, and densely wooded, presenting to view several white beaches and groves of coco palms, while not far from shore are numerous off-lying rocks that continue in a south-easterly direction for about 3 miles from the end of Tilanchong and terminate in a fair-sized islet, named Isle of Man.[31]
The island of Kamorta lies some 12 miles to the south, the adjacent part rising in low grass-covered hills, with occasional trees dotted about: along the coast runs a fringe of vegetation and coconut trees, while in the centre, where the island is about 450 feet high, it is more thickly covered with forest. Trinkat, closely adjoining it on the east, is very low, and from the sea, seems overgrown with jungle. Darkness had fallen before we reached the southern entrance of Beresford Channel, that runs between it and Kamorta, and proceeding inwards for a short distance, we anchored at 9.45 p.m.