HYDROGRAPHICAL CHART OF THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS.
PART II
CHAPTER I
THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND THEIR INHABITANTS
Position—Soundings—Relationship—Islands—Area—Great Andaman Mountains—Little Andaman—-Rivers—Coral Banks—Scenery—Harbours—Timber—Flora—Climate—Cyclones—Geology—Minerals—Subsidence—Earthquakes—History—Aborigines—Convicts and the Penal System—Growth and Resources of the Settlement—Products and Manufactures.
The Andamans, which together with the Nicobars form one of the minor dependencies of our Indian Empire, are situated in the Bengal Sea, between the parallels of 10° 30' and 14° 15' N. latitude, and the meridians 92° 10' and 93° 30' E. longitude, where they lie in a N. by E. direction. To the west the coast of Madras is some 700 miles distant, and eastward Tenasserim, bordered by the islands of the Mergui Archipelago, lies about 320 miles away. Intervening between them and Sumatra to the south lies the Nicobar group, and before Cape Negrais in Burma is reached the little island of Preparis must be passed.
Close to Cape Negrais terminate the Arakan Hills, one of a series of ranges that run down from the Eastern Himalayas; and just south of Acheen Head we have the Gunong Mas, Batu Mukuruh, and other mountains; therefore, looking at a map of the district, it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that the whole of the islands last enumerated are nothing less than a continuation southward of the Arakan Hills.