supplementing the information obtained from the Andamans regarding
cyclones in the Bay of Bengal. From 1869 to 1888 an observatory
was properly maintained in Nancowry harbour, but after the latter
year observations were recorded only in a more or less desultory way
until 1897, when the station was removed to Mus in Car Nicobar.
The climate is unhealthy for Europeans. The islands are exposed
to both monsoons, and smooth weather is only experienced from
February to April, and in October. Rain falls throughout the year,
generally in sharp, heavy showers. During the five years ending
1888 the annual rainfall varied from 91 in. to 133 in., and the number
of wet days per annum from 148 to 222. The highest temperature in
the shade was 98·2° F., and the lowest 64° F.
Flora and Fauna.—Although the vegetation of the Nicobars has received much desultory attention from scientific observers, it has not been subjected to a systematic examination by the Indian Forest Department like that of the Andamans, and indeed the forests are quite inferior in economic value to those of the more northerly group; besides fruit trees—such as the coco-nut (Cocos nucifera), the betel-nut (Areca catechu), and the mellori (Pandanus leeram)—a thatching palm (Nipa fruticans) and various timber trees have some commercial value, but only one timber tree (Myristica irya) would be considered first-class in the Andamans. The palms of the Nicobars are, however, exceedingly graceful. Instances of the introduction of foreign economic plants are frequently mentioned in the old missionary records, and nowadays a number of familiar Asiatic fruit-trees are carefully and successfully cultivated. As with the geology and the flora, certain phases of the fauna of the islands have been extensively reported. The mammals are not numerous. In the southernmost islands are a small monkey, rats and mice, tree-shrews (Cladobates nic.), bats, and flying-foxes, but it is doubtful if the “wild” pig is indigenous; cattle, when introduced and left, have speedily become “wild.” There are many kinds of birds, notably the megapod (Megapodius nic.), the edible-nest-building swift (Collocalia nidifica), the hackled and pied pigeons (Calaenas nic. and Carpophaga bicolor), a paroquet (Palaeornis caniceps) and an oriole (Oriolus macrourus). Fowls, snipe and teal thrive after importation or migration. Reptiles—snakes, lizards and chameleons, crocodiles, turtles and an enormous variant of the edible Indian crab—are numerous; butterflies and insects, the latter Very troublesome, have not yet been systematically collected. The freshwater fish are reported to be of the types found in Sumatra.
Natives.—The Nicobarese may be best described as a Far Eastern race, having generally the characteristics of the less civilized tribes of the Malay Peninsula and the south-eastern portion of the Asiatic continent, and speaking varieties of the Mon-Annam group of languages, though the several dialects that prevail are mutually unintelligible. Their figure is not graceful, and, owing to their habit of dilating the lips by betel-chewing, the adults of both sexes are often repulsive in appearance. Though short according to the standard of whites (average height, man, 5 ft. 334 in.; woman, 5 ft.), the Nicobarese are a fine, well-developed race, and live to seventy or eighty years of age. Their mental capacity is considerable, though there is a great difference between the sluggish inhabitant of Great Nicobar and the keen trader of Car Nicobar. The religion is an undisguised animism, and all their frequent and elaborate ceremonies and festivals are aimed at exorcising and scaring spirits. Though for a long time they were callous wreckers and pirates, and cruel, and though they show great want of feeling in the “devil murders”—ceremonial murders of one of themselves for grave offences against the community, which are now being gradually put down—still on the whole the Nicobarese are a quiet, inoffensive people, friendly to each other, and not quarrelsome, and by inclination friendly and not dangerous to foreigners. The old charge of cannibalism may be generally said to be quite untrue. Tribes can hardly be distinguished, but there are distinctions, chiefly territorial. All the differences observed in the several kinds of Nicobarese may with some confidence be referred to habitat and the physical difficulties of communication. Such government as there is, is by the village; but the village chiefs have not usually much power, though such authority as they have has always been maintained by the foreign Powers who have possessed the islands. The clothing, when not a caricature of European dress, is of the scantiest, and the waggling tags in which the loin-cloths are tied behind early gave rise to fanciful stories that the inhabitants were naked and tailed. The houses are good, and often of considerable size. The natives are skilful with their lands, and though they never cultivate cereals, exercise some care and knowledge over the coco-nut and tobacco, and have had much success with the foreign fruits and vegetables introduced by the missionaries. The staple article of trade has always been the ubiquitous coco-nut, of which it is computed that 15 million are produced annually, 10 million being taken by the people, and 5 million exported about equally from Car Nicobar and the rest of the islands. The usual cheap European goods are imported, the foreign trade being carried on with the native traders of the neighbouring Asiatic countries. There is an old-established internal trade, chiefly between the older islands and Chowra, for pots (which are only made there) and racing and other canoes.
History.—The situation of the Nicobars along the line of a very ancient trade route has caused them to be reported by traders and seafarers through all historical times. In the 17th century the islands began to attract the attention of missionaries. At various times France, Denmark, Austria and Great Britain all had more or less shadowy rights to the islands, the Danes being the most persistent in their efforts to occupy the group, until in 1869 they relinquished their claims in favour of the British, who at once began to put down the piracies of the islanders, and established a penal settlement, numbering in all about 350 persons, in Nancowry harbour. The health of the convicts was always bad, though it improved with length of residence and the adoption of better sanitary measures; and an attempt to found a Chinese colony having failed in 1884 through mismanagement, the settlement was withdrawn in 1888. There are native agencies at Nancowry harbour and on Car Nicobar, both of which places are gazetted ports. At the latter is a Church of England mission station under a native Indian catechist attached to the diocese of Rangoon.
Authorities.—E. H. Man, Dictionary of the Central Nicobarese Language (London, 1889); F. Maurer, Die Nikobaren (Berlin, 1867); Dr Svoboda, Die Bewohner des Nikobaren-Archipels (Leiden, 1893); F. A. De Roepstorff, Dictionary of the Nancowry Dialect (Calcutta, 1884); Vocabulary of Dialects in the Nicobar and Andaman Islands (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1875); Prevost and Heing, Report on Preliminary Tour through the Nicobar Islands (Government, Rangoon, 1897); J. B. Kloss, In the Andamans and Nicobars (London, 1902); A. Alcock, A Naturalist in the Indian Seas (London, 1902). (R. C. T.)
NICOL, JAMES (1810–1879), Scottish geologist, was born at Traquair, near Innerleithen, in Peeblesshire, on the 12th of August 1810. His father, the Rev. James Nicol (1769–1819), was minister of Traquair, and acquired some celebrity as a poet. Educated at Edinburgh University (1825), James Nicol attended the lectures of Jameson, and thereby gained a keen interest in geology and mineralogy; and he pursued their study in the universities of Bonn and Berlin. After returning home
he worked zealously at the local geology and obtained prizes from the Highland Society for essays on the geology of Peeblesshire and Roxburghshire; he subsequently extended his researches over various parts of Scotland, and in 1844 published
his able Guide to the Geology of Scotland. In 1847 he was appointed
assistant secretary to the Geological Society of London,
in 1849 professor of geology in Queen's College, Cork, and in
1853 professor of natural history in the University of Aberdeen,
a post which he retained until a few months before he died, on
the 8th of April 1879. During these years he carried out important
researches on the southern uplands of Scotland and on
the structure of the Highlands. In the former region he gave
the first clear account of the succession of the fossiliferous
Lower Palaeozoic rocks (1848–1852); and when he came to deal
with the still older Highland rocks he made out the position of
the Torridon sandstone and Durness limestone and their relations
to the schists and gneisses. His matured views, although
contested by Murchison, have subsequently been substantiated
by Professor C. Lapworth and others.
The more important of his papers were: “On the Structure of the North-Western Highlands” (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1861), and “On the Geological Structure of the Southern Grampians” (ib., 1863). He contributed the article “Mineralogy” to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Among his other works were Manual of Mineralogy (1849); Elements of Mineralogy (1858, 2nd ed., 1873); Geological Map of Scotland (1858); and Geology and Scenery of the North of Scotland (1866).
NICOL, WILLIAM (? 1768–1851), Scottish physicist, was born about 1768, and died at Edinburgh on the end of September
