STRUCTURE OF CORAL LSLANDS. 153 



Maldne Archipdai:;o. — The Maldives have been often 

 appealed to in illustration of coral structures. They are par- 

 ticularly described by Mr. Darwin from information commu- 

 nicated to him by Captain Moresby, and from the charts of 

 this officer and Lieutenant Powell. A paper on the Northern 

 Maldives, by Captain Moresby, is contained in the Journal of 



'■■sf 



S'^f gl 



^^QHorsburdi Atoll 



MAHLOS MAHDOO ATOLL, WITH HOKSBURGH ATOLL (.'j, OF AN INCH TO A MILE) 



the Royal Geographical Society, vol. v. p. 398 ; and another on 

 this group by J. J. Horsburgh, and W. F. W. Owen, in the same 

 journal, vol. ii. pp. 72 and 81. As stated by Mr. Darwin, the 

 archipelago has a length of 470 miles, with an average breadth 

 of fifty miles ;.and it consists for the most of its length of two 

 parallel lines of atolls. The large atoll at the north end has a 

 length of eighty-eight miles, while Suadiva, one of the southern- 



