That night quite a small fleet--the two junks and ourselves--lay in the quiet anchorage. The cook and boy, smartly attired in black oiled calico, went off in the dinghy to visit their compatriots. The style of their garments must be held to excuse the absence of that quality in their rowing, for each man's stroke was a thing to itself, as he painstakingly illustrated the famous maxim of Mr Charles Bouncer, "Dig your oar in deep, and pull it out with a jerk!" Perseverance and a devious course brought them to their goal; but we retired to sleep with dubious opinions as to their safe return. CHAPTER XIII GREAT NICOBAR--WEST COAST Pulo Kunyi--Area of Great Nicobar--Mountains--Rivers--The Village-- The Shom Pe[.n]--Casuarina Bay--An ingenious "Dog-hobble"--In the Jungle--A Shom Pe[.n] Village--Men of the Shom Pe[.n]--A lazy Morning---The Shom Pe[.n] again--Their Similarity to the Nicobarese--Food--Implements--Cooking-vessel--The Dagmar River-- Casuarina Bay--Pulo Nyur--Water--A Boat Expedition--The Alexandra River--Shom Pe[.n] Villages--Kópenhéat--More Shom Pe[.n]-- Elephantiasis--Pet Monkeys--Anchorage. "_March_ 17, 1901.--At 6.30 A.M. both junks left, and we followed half an hour later. The breeze was light, the sea smooth, and the Chinese kept ahead all the way: in fact, we only caught up the smaller just abreast of Pulo[77] Kunyi, our destination on the west coast, where we anchored shortly after the big junk about midday; the other boat did not stop, but sailed on for another village more to the south. "Great Nicobar is the southernmost and the largest of the islands of the group, having a length of 30 miles north and south, and a breadth of from 7 to 14 miles, while the area is 334 square miles. The highest part of the island is that to the north, where Mount Thuillier attains an altitude of 2105 feet. A continuous range of hills runs down the east side of the island close to the coast, making the surface hilly; and near the centre a range 1333 feet high extends crossways in an E.N.E. direction. On the west side the hills are much more irregular in disposition, and there are broad alluvial plains between their bases and the sea. "Both in vegetation and geological formation it resembles Little Nicobar, but is the only island of the group that possesses navigable rivers; for, when their bars are passable, the Dagmar and Alexandra rivers on the west, and the Galathea River in the south, can be ascended some distance towards the interior. "The coastal population is barely two-thirds what it was computed at in 1886, and now numbers 87 only. In the interior are the Shom Pe[.n], who, liberally estimated, may number from 300 to 400; but, as a few friendly families alone are all with whom communication has been held, it is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion.