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.
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 1-1/4 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.
"_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 3-3/8
inches by 2-3/16 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.
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.