HADDUMMATI. 131 



and shingle have accumulated, forming bars and islands running at right 

 angles to the line of the outer edge of the reef flat, and reaching out towards 

 similar sand islands and bars thrown up on its inner face, thus forming a 

 great rectangular bay enclosing an incipient lagoon, a shallow disconnected 

 part of the reef flat, which will eventually connect Gang with the islands to 

 the north of it. This clearly shows the last stages in the progress of growth 

 of sand spits from adjoining islands, gradually closing up the opening be- 

 tween them, until the gap is reduced to a minimum and the two sides 

 finally become united into one island. To the north of this bay an ex- 

 tensive outlier of recent reef rock, somewhat higher than the surrounding 

 reef flat, extends parallel to its outer line. This part of the edge of the 

 outer reef flat is in many places of a reddish tint due to the growth of 

 Nullipores upon the dead coral boulders ; this is unusual in the Maldives. 



The beaches of the southern part of the east face of Gang are edged 

 with beach rock ; the reef flat is narrow in places, the outer slope seems to 

 be the extension of the beach rock belt; in others the eastern reef flat 

 widens out irregularly, the eastern face of the island is as a whole steep to. 

 Where the reef flat is narrow or forms the shore of Gang, some of the 

 coarse coral shingle beaches on which the surf breaks thus form the outer 

 steep to edge of the reef flat. On one of the narrow reef flats of Gang we 

 observed a large boulder, undercut, pitted, and honeycombed, perhaps the 

 largest we have seen ; it measured from three to four feet in diameter. 

 Another but somewhat smaller boulder was observed to the north of Gang, 

 with a number of still smaller boulders scattered along the edge of the 

 narrow reef flat. To the north of the central part of Gang the reef flat 

 widens out again greatly, and is covered with a wide belt of small coral 

 boulders and of coral shingle. On the northern part of Gang the beaches 

 are mainly stretches of small coral shingle. The island south of Gang is 

 separated from it by a narrow gap or mere ditch with a sand-bar nearly 

 reaching across ; this is perhaps the narrowest and best-defined gap we have 

 seen in the Maldives. The small islands further to the north run generally 

 at an angle to the trend of the reef flats, and form the sides of a series of 

 more or less distinct bays closed on the outer edge of the reef flats by a belt 

 of coral boulders or heaps of shingle. On the lagoon side these bays are 



