80 THE CORAL EEEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



reef flat forms the northwestern horn of the faro. The lagoon has a greatest 

 depth of more than seven fathoms. 



Nearly the whole western face of Tiladummati and of Miladummadulu 

 is edged with large faros with or without islands, which may vary from 

 a sand islet to islands of more than a mile in length. 



Filadu, Kelai, and Warifuri occupy a striking position. They are placed 

 on the steep edge of the horn of a plateau, which on the eastern face slopes 

 in a distance of about five miles to seven hundred and eighty-one fathoms, 

 on the northern face to six hundred and one fathoms, and two hundred and 

 fifty fathoms in a northwesterly direction, while the depth of the central 

 part of the plateau within the area enclosed by these lagoon reefs is 

 nowhere greater than twenty-nine fathoms. So that on the theory of sub- 

 sidence we should have to account for the sinking of the eastern face 

 of Kelai, Filadn, and Baura to a depth of over seven hundred fathoms, 

 while the western faces were formed during a subsidence of less than thirty 

 fathoms. On the same theory the southern faces of Kelai, Warifuri, and 

 the other lagoon reefs of the northern face of Tiladummati were formed 

 during a subsidence of from twenty to thirty fathoms, while the northern 

 faces subsided from two hundred and fifty to six hundred fathoms! Again, 

 in the same inner basin of Tiladummati and Miladummadulu are a number 

 of smaller lagoon reefs, atolls in every sense of the word, which on the 

 theory of subsidence could only have been formed during a subsidence of 

 about thirty fathoms. Some of them in the central part of the group have 

 become islands ; others are still lagoon reefs, as will be seen by a glance at 

 the charts. To the former category belong Muradu, Mahafai, Kumberidu, 

 and nearly all the islands in the central part of Tiladummati and Miladum- 

 madulu, such as Faidu, Madidu, Kandute, Rebudu, and a number of small 

 and nameless islands in the eastern and southern part of Miladummadulu. 

 To the latter series belong Goadu, Maruri, Wagaru with a lagoon of eight 

 fathoms in depth, Kabafaro, Dureadu with a lagoon of eighteen fathoms in 

 depth, Maddedu with a lagoon of eight fathoms, and a number of unnamed 

 rings and diminutive lagoon reefs in the southern part of Miladummadulu. 



The conditions which have shaped the formation of the faros of the reefs 

 and islands of Tiladummati and Miladummadulu are similar to those which 



