134 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



(PI. 70, fig. 1), the line of islands on the east face seems like a solid stretch 

 of land as far as Gang, and again from Gang to Gadu, with the exception 

 of the wide gap between it and Funadu. 



Mr. Gardiner 1 describes Kolumadulu as ending the series of Maldive 

 Banks in a typical atoll, yet it has a large faro with four fathoms in the 

 velu to the northeast of Hirilandu Pass, and pools (veins according to 

 Gardiner) with six and seven fathoms of water in the reef flats circum- 

 scribing the southern and western faces of Kolumadulu. He speaks of 

 Haddummati as " still more perfect in shape . . . with no trace of velu." 

 This is not the case, as in the flats of the northeast horn of Haddummati to 

 the southwest of Isdu are several veins with from three to six fathoms of 

 water. Mr. Gardiner attempts to show that the varying depths of the 

 banks from Tiladummati to Kolumadulu is due to the perfection of the atoll 

 condition rather than to the position of the banks on the greater Maldivian 

 plateau. The difference in the depths of the banks is not great enough to 

 warrant such an inference. On the contrary, the soundings indicating the 

 pitch of the greater bank to the north and to the south point to differences 

 in depths far greater than those of the basins of the smaller banks. 



Suvadiva. 



Plates 1, 6; 8 c, Jigs. 22, 23; 71-75 ; 79, fig. 1. 



Suvadiva (PI. 6), one of the largest of known atolls, is somewhat pear- 

 shaped ; it is forty-four miles long north and south, and thirty-four miles 

 in breadth. Though many of the reef flats of Suvadiva have the charac- 

 teristics of the reef flats of Pacific atolls, yet large stretches of the outer 

 face of the group are flanked by faros with deep lagoons similar to those 

 of the northern groups. Such are the great faros on the northern face of 

 Suvadiva, along which we skirted ; the faro, with its great lagoon, which 

 forms the western face of the northwest pass into Suvadiva, and the lagoon 

 reefs of the northwest face. A number of most irregularly shaped banks 

 and faros lie to the south of the outer northern line of faros, and occupy a 

 great part of the northwestern face of Suvadiva. 



1 Loc. cit., p. 156. 



