ANDAMANS, an'da-manz, a chain of vol ;anic islands in the Bay of Bengal, 590 miles :rom the mouth of the Hugli, 120 miles from :ape Negrais in Burma, the nearest point on he mainland. Five large islands closely together are called the Great Anda nan, and to the south is the island of Little kndaman. There are some 200 islets, the two nincipal groups being the Andaman Archipel igo and the Labyrinth Islands. The total area s 2,260 square miles. The Great Andaman group s about 219 miles long, and at the widest 32 piles broad. The group, densely wooded, con tains many valuable trees, the best known of rvhich is the padauk or Andaman redwood. The stands are hilly, the highest point, Saddle Peak, ueing 2,402 feet, and Mount Harriet, 1,196 feet .n height. The islands possess a number of iarbors and safe anchorages, notably, Port Blair, Port Cornwallis and Stewart Sound, the Last being most favorably situated for forest trade. The aborigines, 1,317 (628 males and 689 females) in 1911, live in small groups over the islands; they are savages of a low Negrito type. The total population in 1915 was 25,732. The climate is tropical, the rainfall irregular and often excessive. In 1914 forest sales, the re sult of convict labor, amounted to $13,931.59. Tea, the cocoanut, manila hemp and Bahamas aloe are successfully cultivated. In 1914 there
were 12,233 head of cattle. Wireless telegraphy with Burma was established in 1904. A mail steamer connects Port Blair with Calcutta, Rangoon and Madras. The islands have been used since 1858 by the government of India as a penal settlement for life and long-term con victs. The settlement possesses about 26,600 acres of cleared land and 156 square miles of reserved forest. There were, in 1915, 12,252 convicts (including 570 women) in the place, of whom some 1,730 were on ticket-of-leave in the settlement supporting themselves. Of the women, about half are on ticket-of-leave, and married to convicts.
The Andaman Islands are under the govern ment of India, and the officer in charge is the superintendent of Port Blair. The civil, mili tary and convict population of Port Blair in 1915 was 16,914. For the ethnography of the Andaman aborigines consult Kloss, In the An damans and Nicobars) (1903) ; Man, The Aborigines of the Andaman Islands) (London 1885) ; Portman, (Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group) (Calcutta 1898); °The Andaman Islands° (in Thy Indian Anti quary, Vols. XXVIII and XXX, Bombay 1899— 1900).