74 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



Were it not for the existence of velus, 1 the appearance of the reef flats 

 of the southeast face of Fadiffolu is quite that of some of the reef flats of 

 the Pacific atolls, with their double row of islands. 



Fadiffolu is irregularly rectangular in shape with rounded corners. 

 The northeastern and southwestern faces are concave, the others convex. 

 It is nineteen miles in length and about twelve miles in width. On the 

 southwestern face a deep gap five miles in width separates Aligau and 

 Lowalafuri (PI. 34, fig. 1), the next island to the north; between it and 

 Kanifuri, the large triangular reef flat which forms the western horn of the 

 atoll, there are only two small reef flats and a small island on the southwest 

 face of Fadiffolu. Near the centre of the southwestern gap rises Maduwari, 

 a small island, steep to, covered with low vegetation, much of which is 

 dead or dying, as is the case with the vegetation of so many of the islands 

 and islets in the northern part of Male and north of that group. Lowala- 

 furi is steep to; on the western face a steep shingle beach extends into the 

 base of the outer belt of vegetation ; much of this is dying ; the sea is 

 evidently encroaching upon the south side of the island. *A lagoon extends 

 off the eastern face of the main island, which is joined by a sand-bar to the 

 islet on the eastern rim of the lagoon reef, which probably was once a part 

 of the larger island. 



Lohi is also wasting at the southern extremity; both it and Kurangdu 

 are steep to on the western face. Some large trees are growing on Kurangdu, 

 though nearly all in a poor condition ; this may be due to the effect of the 

 southwest monsoon. 



On the west and northwest faces of Fadiffolu we have a series of inde- 

 pendent lagoon reefs, most of them with islands such as occur on the pla- 

 teaus of Tiladummati and Miladuinmadulu. In the latter case the faros or 

 atolls are often separated by gaps of from five to ten miles, while in the 

 former case they are only from one to three miles apart. A long reef flat 

 forms the western face of the northern pass into Fadiffolu. We entered 

 Fadiffolu by the wide pass south of Maro. 



The difference in structure of the southwestern and northwestern faces 



1 Two of the eastern reef flats of Fadiffolu have been figured by Mr. Gardiner and the differences 

 with the Admiralty Chart carefully described by him, loc. cit., p. 400, fig. 104. 



