First of all the industries of the Andamans is that of timber, and to accelerate and increase it a Steam Tramway has been instituted, and there are now some 14 miles of line connecting the forests with the shores of Port Blair. As a further adjunct, Steam Saw-mills were erected in 1896, and a Forest Department, that employs 500 to 600 men daily under its own officers, not only supplies the Settlement with the whole of its requirements in timber from the local forests, but also exports timber and forest produce to various places in India and Europe. Of these latter exports, rattans and gurjan oil are the chief; other natural products of the islands are trepang—bêche-de-mer—tortoiseshell and edible birds' nests, but they are only collected in small quantities.
The principal cultivations in which convicts and ex-convicts are engaged are paddy, sugar-cane, Indian corn, and turmeric; coconuts have during the past thirty-five years been extensively planted, and besides the agricultural products previously mentioned, vegetables and fruits of various kinds are grown.
The larger industries in which the penal community is engaged in have already been alluded to, but there are many minor employments, the products from which also go towards making the Settlement self-supporting. Amongst these are to be found the manufacture of all kinds of furniture, cane chairs, baskets, many varieties of bamboo-work and ornamental wood-carving, woven articles, from serviettes to saddle-girths and blankets, pottery, rope and mats, silver, tin, brass and iron work, shoemaking, rickshaw and cart building, besides the production of such materials as lime, bricks, and tiles.
Port Blair is in communication three, and often four times a month, with Calcutta, Madras, and Rangoon, by the vessels of the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company. The distances between the Settlement and the ports named are 796, 780, and 387 miles respectively.
ANDAMANESE BAMBOO BUCKETS AND CANE BASKETS (CONICAL); ALSO NICOBARESE CANE BASKETS (5), WITH TRAY AND BUCKET OF SPATHE.