Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II / (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the / Austrian Navy.

by Ritter von Karl Scherzer

As the examination of this Archipelago was, in consequence of the all but impenetrable forests, confined to the narrow strip of land along the shore, we had almost said to the region of cocoa-palms exclusively, its various geognostic features were very inadequately, yet withal approximately, ascertained. If we admit that a covering of vegetation of the utmost variety and primeval luxuriance, untouched by the hand of man, and entirely unreclaimed by cultivation, may be considered as the expressive feature by which an estimate could be arrived at of the different geognostic conditions of soil beneath, we may succeed in our attempt from the characteristics of this primeval vegetation, to come to some definite conclusion as to the quality and the greater or lesser productiveness of the ground. According to this method of computing, it would seem that,

I. The forest, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, includes

⁷⁰⁄₁₀₀ of the entire surface of the island:—the soil being limestone, rich in alkalies, spungy, with clay-sand, and exceedingly fertile.

II. On the other hand, the grass vegetation proper may be set down at ¹⁵⁄₁₀₀ of the surface: a barren, clay soil.

III. The cocoa forest may be estimated at ⁵⁄₁₀₀ of the entire area; upon a fruitful soil of coral conglomerate, coral sand, and dried alluvium.

IV. In like manner the screw-pine forests cover ⁵⁄₁₀₀ of the entire insular surface, the soil marshy but well suited for cultivation, with fresh-water bogs, and moist fresh-water alluvium.

V. Lastly, the mangrove forest in like manner may be roughly estimated at ⁵⁄₁₀₀ of the superficial area, and is a swampy soil, unfitted for cultivation, consisting of salt-water marshes, and alluvium, moistened by salt-water.

The entire superficial area of the islands may be computed at about 627 square miles. Reckoning only ⁷⁄₁₀ therefore of the surface as consisting of soil suitable for culture, which may undoubtedly be assumed as a fair approximation, we have a surface of 439 square miles capable of being made productive. But even the very ground now exclusively covered with grass, might be made productive with a more numerous population and a corresponding improvement in cultivation, so that these islands, now the abode of about 5000 savages, could easily support in comfort a population of over 100,000 industrious men.

At present the chief product of the islands is the cocoa-nut palm, which grows for the most part on the sea-shore, so far as the coral sand reaches. Within the same limits is the existence of the inhabitants confined, destitute as they are of industry or the capacity to cultivate the soil. This invaluable plant seldom extends far into the interior, and from this circumstance was named by a celebrated German traveller and botanist, Martius, the "Sea-shore palm." It is, however, as yet undecided whether the cocoa-palm is indigenous to the Nicobar Islands, or whether, cast on these shores by the waves, it has, by virtue of its well-known property of putting forth shoots even in salt-water, gradually propagated itself without any assistance from man.