HADDUMMATI. 133 



line of breakers. The great white flat is streaked with belts of light green, 

 light or darker blue, according to the depth of the bodies of water scattered 

 over its surface. The line of the lagoons trends in a northeasterly direction 

 immediately to the westward of Dambidu and of Isdu. The boulder belt is 

 of great width on the east face of Isdu ; within this belt, towards the eastern 

 horn, has been left a small islet, an outlier of coral reef rock slightly higher 

 than the level of the surrounding reef flats. 



On the reef flats we observed a few pits and pot-holes, but not in great 

 numbers, as on the reef flats of many of the Pacific atolls which have been 

 planed down by the action of the surf. 



Towards the east the reef flat of Isdu becomes narrower, the boulder belt 

 and the stretches of shingle beach unite until near the eastern point the reef 

 flat has disappeared, the slopes of the continuation of the shingle beach run 

 rapidly seaward, the narrow wedge-shaped point of Isdu, forming the north- 

 east horn of Haddummati, becomes steep to, and the sea breaks directly 

 upon the coarse shingle beaches of the eastern extremity of Isdu. 



A short distance to the westward of the northeast horn of Isdu, a narrow 

 reef flat runs for a distance along its northern face, the flat gradually 

 widens westward, and for a distance of four miles it increases in width, 

 when it gradually narrows and passes into the long and narrow strip of reef 

 flat which extends in a southwesterly direction as far as Waduni Pass. 

 From the northern side of the horn we could trace the positions of the 

 numerous sand-bars and banks scattered over the surface of the horn to the 

 westward and northward of the line of lagoons. 



From the rapid examination we made of the northeastern horn of 

 Haddummati, it is difficult to determine accurately the mode of formation 

 of the lagoons. I am inclined to consider them as parts of the original 

 lagoon or reef flat which have little by little been enclosed and isolated 

 by the growth of sand-bars and patches of corals or of spits, somewhat 

 as we find outgrowths on the edge of the reef flat to the east of Waduni 

 Pass and of Mavaru Island, where a part of the lagoon, with eight fathoms 

 of water, is nearly enclosed by a coral belt. The east face of Haddummati 

 is characterized by the great extent of land formed by the nearly continuous 

 islands on this reef flat. Looking back from the eastern extremity of Isdu 



