The case affords a striking example of the effect of contact between civilised and savage man, for only those tribes of the Andamanese that are still hostile or who have little or no intercourse with the Government Settlement, have preserved any respectable number of individuals in their ranks. Of these, the Jarawas, although not distantly located from the Settlement, receive all advances with inveterate implacability, while the Öngés of Little Andaman, who were until 1884 almost totally unvisited, are further off, and enjoy an insular position. These two tribes between them represent by estimation some 1250 of the total inhabitants of the islands. The numbers in the various other tribes are now very small, but possibly were never as large as those of the two mentioned. Everywhere is noticeable an enormous disproportion between the numbers of adults and children--a feature, in view of the fewness of the former, that argues badly for a much longer continuance of the race. Concerning the fact, some of the natives say that it is not due to sickness, but that children are very seldom born; others state that the first, or first and second children are dead, and that the one present is the sole survivor. Undoubtedly, however, the infant mortality that exists is due to the presence of syphilis, which occurs in some of its most virulent forms amongst these people, and not to maternal neglect, as the mothers display the greatest affection for their children. "The Andaman Penal System is the result of the constant attention of the Government which created it, and is the outcome of the measures of practical men, devised to meet the difficulties with which they have found themselves face to face, and reduced to order and rule by some of the keenest intellects that have worked in India for many years past. It is no paper constitution drawn up to suit any particular theories. There have always been the convicts in their thousands, and there have been the climate, and the necessity for treating the convicts in the way best calculated to benefit them, and for so employing them as to bring down their cost to the taxpayer to the lowest limits compatible with climatic conditions and beneficial treatment. Trusted agents of the Government have pondered these things on the spot in the light of an ever-increasing experience, and their ideas and suggestions have passed under the criticisms of highly experienced administrators, and have in the end produced the system which is now carried out.