The Andamans, which together with the Nicobars form one of the minor dependencies of our Indian Empire, are situated in the Bengal Sea, between the parallels of 10° 30' and 14° 15' N. latitude, and the meridians 92° 10' and 93° 30' E. longitude, where they lie in a N. by E. direction. To the west the coast of Madras is some 700 miles distant, and eastward Tenasserim, bordered by the islands of the Mergui Archipelago, lies about 320 miles away. Intervening between them and Sumatra to the south lies the Nicobar group, and before Cape Negrais in Burma is reached the little island of Preparis must be passed.
Close to Cape Negrais terminate the Arakan Hills, one of a series of ranges that run down from the Eastern Himalayas; and just south of Acheen Head we have the Gunong Mas, Batu Mukuruh, and other mountains; therefore, looking at a map of the district, it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that the whole of the islands last enumerated are nothing less than a continuation southward of the Arakan Hills.
But although they form a chain that seems to indicate a past union of Sumatra and Burma, investigation proves that this is far from being the case. For soundings in this part of the ocean show that between the Nicobars and the group of islands adjacent to the north-east point of Sumatra--entering from the open sea to the west, and thence trending north between the Andamans and Malay Peninsula almost as far as the latitude of Narkondam--there runs a long tongue of depressed ocean bed with depths everywhere over 1000 fathoms. This fact, together with the shallowness of the sea-bottom around and connecting the Andamans with the Arakan Yoma Peninsula, suggests the inference that the former were at one time past the termination of a seaward extension from Cape Negrais of the Arakan Yoma Range--a conclusion that is in some degree emphasized by the zoological and botanical conditions common to the two.
The principal islands are, Great and Little Andaman, Rutland and the Labyrinths, the Archipelago, North Sentinel, Interview Island, Landfall Island, and the Cocos, but there are many smaller adjacent, while to the eastward are the off-lying volcanic islets of Narkondam and Barren Island. The total area of the group is 2508 square miles.[84]