Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 58
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications
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JULY, 1929 ] REMARKS ON THE ANDAMAN ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY
contours of the depths of this sea from such data as the charts at my disposal afford and it seems to me that they fully support Carpenter's conclusion. The openings into the Andaman Sea from the connected Occans are :-- from the Bay of Bengal, the North and South Preparis Channels, the Coco Channel, Duncan Passage. Ten Degrees Channel, and the Great Channel ; from the Gulf of Siam, the Straits of Malacca. This last has a bar only a few fathoms deep and clearly isolaces the Andaman Sea from the Gulf. The greatest, depths in the other channels are as under : North Preparis Channel, 47 fathoms; South Preparis Channel, 150 fathoms ; Coco Channel, 36 fathoms: Duncan Passage, 17 fathoms; Ten Degrees Channel, 565 fathoms : Great Channel, 798 fathoms.
On either side the line of the Andamans and Nicobars the sea rapidly deepens to 1,000 fathoms and thence on the west in the Bay of Bengal to over 2,000 fathoms within 60 miles of the Nicobars and probably within 100 miles of the Andamans; and on the east in the Andaman Sea to 2,000 fathoms within 85 miles of the Nicobars and within about 96 miles of the Andamans. The contours thus show beyond doubt the existence of a lofty range of submarine mountains between Cape Negrais and Acheen Head rising from the ocean depths up to 15,000 feet and nowhere less than 6,000 feet on the east, and up to 15,000 feet and nowhere less than 10,000 feet on the west, thus separating the Bay of Bengal from the Andaman Sea. Of this great range 700 miles long, taking 100 fathoms as a base, the continental and island summits are shown in one central line north to south &s (1) Cape Negrals (Arakan Yomas) and Preparis Islands, (2) Cocos and Andaman Islands, (3) Nicobar Islands, (4) Acheen Head (Sumatra). The Western Banks, the Sentinel Islands and Dalrymple Bank are lower summits to the west of the central line. According to my contours outlying summits of detached spurs of the central line to the east are Barren Island and the Invisible Bank. They also show that Narcondam and the submarine hill to its south-east are separated from the Central Andaman and Nicobar Range, being summits of outlying Spurs of the Yomas attached to Cape Negrais. This last fact supports the old assumption that the dormant Barren Island volcano belongs to the immediate Sunda group of volcanoes, while the long extinct Naroondam Volcano belongs to Pegu group, both belonging to the general Sunda group.
As the arguments derivable from the submarine contours have not, so far as I know been hitherto worked out, and as they may be thus of some general interest, I have thought it necessary to deal with them at some length. It must be remembered that much of the ethnographic, as well as the natural history, speculation about both the Andamans and Nicobars depends on the assumed degree of their isolation from the Asiatic Continent.
From a consideration of the ocean contours may be deduced the following facts: (1) A narrow ridge runs between Great Nicobar and Acheen Head from ten to two miles wide with just less than 800 fathoms at the greatest depth of water in it, (2) The Andaman Sea has been founded to 2,000 fathoms about 84 miles east of Car Nicobar, and the Bay of Bengal to well over 2,000 fathoms 61 miles east of Teressa. In the Andaman Sea the deep water of 2,000 fathoms or more does not run probably further north than 125 miles east of Port Blair. In the Bay of Bengal the deep water of 3,000 fathoms is probably distant about 100 miles west of the Andamans. (3) Probably the deepest water between the Invisible Bank and the Andamans is under 900 fathoms, the Bank itself being the summit of a long hill running some 90 miles north-north-east to south-south-west directly on to Car Nicobar, the deepest point between it and Car Nicobar being some 900 fathoms. (4) Probably the deepest water between Barren Island and the Andamans is under 1,000 fathoms, the island being the peak of a hill running some 35 miles north-east to south-west direct on to Rutland Island. The deepest point between it and the Invisible Bank is under 1,100 fathoms, (5) At 94 miles due east of Stewart Sound is a patch of 377 fathoms, the summit of a submarine hill running apparently west to east some 45 miles. Between this hill and south-west to Barten Island and west to the Andamans are great depths
