TILADUMMATI. 99 



depth of three fathoms, somewhat blocked by coral heads and sand banks. 

 The northern side of the entrance is inarked by a low sandy islet at the 

 western extremity of the narrow northern rim of the lagoon, the depth of 

 which varies from four to eight fathoms. The western rim of the lagoon is 

 narrow, and both the northern and southern rims are extensions, tapering 

 westward, of the wide reef flat rim on the eastern face of the lagoon reef, the 

 greater part of which is occupied by the double hook-shaped island of Kelai. 



The widest reef flat rim of the lagoon reef of Warifuri forms the north- 

 western horn of the atoll, its southwestern rim is quite narrow as well as 

 the southern rim reef flat, which is edged by a long narrow coral sand island 

 covered with low vegetation, and from each extremity long sand-bars are 

 extending northward along the western and eastern rims of the lagoon reef. 

 The lagoon of Warifuri has a greatest depth of over seven fathoms. Two 

 small narrow islands covered with low vegetation extend along a part 

 of the northern rim of Warifuri. In the course of time these islands 

 may reach south on the western reef and unite with the southern island 

 so as to form a single island on the western face of the lagoon reef, as we 

 find it to be the case with Gafuri and Miledu, two lagoon reefs to the west- 

 ward on the northern face of Tiladummati, in both of which the islands are 

 on the western rim flat, as are also usually the widest rim flats on the faros 

 of the western face of Tiladummati. 



Dedu (PI. 51, fig. 1) occupies the eastern face of a triangular lagoon 

 reef, the western rim of which is narrow ; at one time it was composed of 

 two islands now united by a central connecting ridge, as can be seen 

 from the character of the vegetation covering the ridge. 



The western part of the southern rim of Gafuri is bordered by a wide 

 belt of boulders extending northward from Dunacoori (PI. 52, fig. 1), a 

 small islet at the southern horn of the rim. The southern part of the 

 lagoon is very shallow, though the charts indicate a depth of seven fathoms 

 at the northern end of the lagoon. Gafuri is separated from an adjoining 

 ring to the west by a very narrow deep channel, a mere line of dark-blue 

 water of a depth of ten fathoms. The outer edge of the wide rim of the 

 ring is crowded with large colored patches of corals extending nearly to 

 the edge of the small lagoon of the ring. 



