INTRODUCTION. xiii 



After examining North Male 1 we passed to Ari, then to North and South 

 Nilandu, crossing to Mulaku, making our way to Kolumadulu, to Haddum- 

 mati, to Suvadiva, and to Addu, the southernmost atoll of the Maldives. On 

 account of the heavy sea we were unable either on our way south or north 

 to stop at Fua Mulaku, a small island between Suvadiva and Addu ; but, 

 judging from the chart and such accounts as I could obtain, it probably 

 does not differ from similar islands in the Maldives. 



Going north we modified our course so as to visit the faces of the atolls 

 we had not seen on our way south, and to cross the lagoons from a different 

 direction, taking thus a bird's eye-view of the atolls and islands. Our route 

 was further daily modified according to the position of the sun to enable 

 us to navigate the interior of an atoll in safety, or to take photographs as we 

 passed, without loss of time. 



On our way north we examined the atolls of the eastern chain which we 

 had not seen : Wataru, Felidu, and South Male. From Male Island we ex- 

 amined the western parts of North Male which we had not visited before, 

 passed on to Gaha Faro, to Kariclu, to Fadiffolu, to South Malosmadulu, to 

 Goifurfehendu, to Middle and North Malosmadulu, to Miladummadulu, 

 crossing to Makunudu and Tiladummati. We left the Maldives through 

 one of the passages on the east face of Ihavandiffulu, the northernmost 

 atoll of the group, after having steamed nearly sixteen hundred miles 

 among the atolls of the Maldives. 



Although the waters within the groups of atolls of the Maldives have 

 been most carefully sounded by Commander Moresby and Lieutenant 

 Powell, 2 yet very little was known of the depths on the two sea faces of the 

 great plateau upon which the atolls of the Maldives have developed, or of 

 the depths in the channels separating them, until Mr. Gardiner's visit. He 

 took a number of soundings across the central basin and a few of the chan- 

 nels separating the Central Maldives. 3 The soundings of the Admiralty 

 Charts give an excellent idea of the topography of the bottom of the lagoons 

 of the composite atolls ; their greatest depth is not much more than forty 



1 PI. 1 shows the track of the " Amra " through the Maldives. 



2 B. A. Charts Nos. 66 a-c. 



8 The Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes, edited by Mr. J. Stanley 

 Gardiner, Vol. I., Part I., p. 19, and Introduction to the above, pp. 10, 11 ; Part II., p. 150, PI. X. 



