मेरा आजीवन कारावास / माझी जन्मठेप (स्वातंत्र्यवीर सावरकर - काले पानी का ऐतिहासिक संस्मरण)

CHAPTER VI The Andamans The group of islands, including the Andamans and the Nicobars, constitute a link not only with the past history of India but also with her development in the world of tomorrow As such no Indian can afford to be Ignorant about this group of islands. India of today is bound to have cultural contacts with other parts of the world ; and the Andamans are a part of it that she is bound to influence. This group of islands is six hundred miles distant from the city of Calcutta, and spreads like a long range in the Bay of Bengal It is not an unbroken range of land The islands are dotted and scattered along the entire area of the Bay Interspersed with the waders of the sea flowing between them. Of this group the Andamans constitute the largest range. In the map you will notice the group divided into three parts-the northern, the southern, and the middle or the centre. It has the shape of an elongated circle-of an ovum or an egg Hence its name-the Andamans. Some have traced the origin of that name to Hanuman, the monkey-god of the Ramayana .But there is no reason to believe in its authenticity The North- Andamans is 51 miles in length; the middle portion is 59 males; and the southern part of it is 49 miles The island of Rutland has the length of 11 miles. The whole is known as the Greater Andaman. At the top of its southern territory there is a portion of land known as the lesser Andaman with an area of 30 by 17 miler. This last is a long stretch of dense forest which remains unpolarised to this day. The forest is so dense that the rays of the Sun cannot penetrate it during the best part of the day. It rises sheer from the sea-beach into a height of mountain- wall that protects it on the rear, and has in the mid-area dark, thick jungles yet untrodden by the feet of civilised man. The forest officers of the place have, however succeeded, at tremendous cost and labour, in making a survey of this portion and marked the spots and the trees in it which they are now to Indicate on the chart of these islands. The highest mountain peak in this range is three thousand feet above the sea level ; and the point is known as Sandal Mount. There are no big rivers crossing the forest ; only streams and rivulets trickle down from the mountain into the valley below. The hot-bed of Malaria As the place is full of jungles, rainfall there is continuous throughout the year Even in autumn it rams a drizzle. But, in between, the sun glares fiercely over- head. In the part of the forest, where spaces of the jungle happen to be cleared for cultivation and residence and gardens of coconut trees are found planted, the climate and the seasons have changed to conform to the tropical parts of our own country. The main seasons, however, are the summer season and the rainy season, with winter only peeping in to