NORTH MALE. 39 



edge we were in nine to ten fathoms, the slope running very gradually up to 

 the edge of the flat into from four to six feet of water at three quarters tide. 

 There was a fine growth of corals on the western face in marked contrast to 

 the condition of corals usually found on the flats and slopes within the 

 lagoons of the Pacific atolls. Nothing shows, perhaps, as plainly as this the 

 atoll character of these numerous faros, scattered over a great plateau. In 

 the lagoon of the faro, coral heads occur occasionally in small patches as well 

 as on the rim flat, where they are separated by wide lanes of sand. In the 

 lagoon of the faros the corals are retarded in their development by the same 

 cause, which acts so efficiently in the lagoons of atolls of other coral regions. 

 On the outer rim flat there are fewer patches of living corals than on the 

 western rim. The outer sea edge of the reef flat is edged with large coral 

 blocks and boulders, more or less pitted and honeycombed ; these in some 

 cases formed ridges of modern reef rock near the outer edo-e of the boulder 

 belt, more or less undercut, rising a couple of feet at most above the level of 

 the outer edge of the rim, and indicating perhaps an elevation of a few 

 feet, these ridges are outliers of a former higher plane of the outer rim, 

 which has been cut down to its present level. The depths of the rims of 

 the rings and of the sand banks varies greatly. They are found at all 

 depths from fifteen fathoms to the surface ; where they have grown up to 

 within six or seven fathoms of the surface, the color of the water over the 

 rims becomes an excellent guide of their depth below it. 



It is difficult to form an accurate opinion regarding the junction or 

 coalescence of adjoining faros on the outer faces of such an enclosed basin 

 as the great lagoon of North Male. It would seem natural to consider 

 some of the longer and narrower faros which form the outer face of the 

 eastern horn of Felidu, parts of the eastern face of Mulaku, of the outer rim 

 of Kolumadulu and of Haddummati, as having originally been composed of a 

 large number of small faros or banks separated by comparatively shallow 

 passes. With the growth of the corals from the two sides those passes 

 become gradually choked, and may finally have become united to form 

 the long narrow reef flats just mentioned, which with the exception of the 

 existence of small lagoons now show so little trace of their former composite 

 condition. 



