
Back at the police camp, we chatted about life on the island. They complained about hordes of rats that destroyed everything. We had caught flimpses of the rodents scurrying around in the trees near the plantations. Could they have jumped ship and colonised the island? In r892, Major David prain noted that "a rat swarms everywhere" and was the commonest mammal on the island.
A decade ago we had experienced a similar situation on South Sentinel Islan, another remote island, almost 400km to the southwest, so perhaps it was normal for a high density of rats to live on these isolated islands, Or maybe some early ship seeded these islands with rats as a surer food source then goats and pigs! Of goats, we had seen nary a sign; no pellets or tracks. Thankfully, esides a pair seen by a few policemen the previous week, an almost thorought removal had been executed.
Just past noon, with three sails hoisted, we set course for port Blair, When a strong wind picked up behind us, Nick cut the engine, unfurled the tow additional sails and, silently, except for the sould of the yacht kniginf throught the
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