394 J. STANLEY GAKDINER. 



only the half of its reef. The reef edge to the S. is 750 yards distant, and has inside a bare 

 sand flat with maximum depth of H fathoms. 



Breyfasdu has the usual stony belt and reef round its N., and to some extent round its 

 E. and \V. sides. Behind there is a mangrove swamp, and the rest of the island is of sand, 

 showing washing away on almost every side. The reef to the S. is 100 yards broad, and has 

 a buttressed edge covered with nullipores — precisely the same as a purely seaward reef— with 

 a boulder zone, behind which a few pinnacles ol' the elevated rock occur on the flat. 



Henbudu is mainly formed of sand, but its beaches are much strewn with boulders. 

 There is a definite reef flat on all sides except the W., generally at least 40 yards broad, the 

 inner half scattered with loose boulders and with a few pinnacles of rock. Near the N.N.W. point 

 is a small pool of water in the flat, about H fathoms deep, but elsewhere the reef is not to 

 any extent hollowed out. Along the W. side the structure is, so far as I have .seen, unique 

 in the Maldives and elsewhere. The beach is formed mainly of boulders, and falls 7 feet in 

 U yards to a smooth or boulder-strewn flat of about 8 yards in breadth, and averaging nearly 

 1 foot above the low tide level. This slopes in about 2.5 yards to 1 fathom or so, hut tlien 

 a number of dead rock masses arise in a line parallel to the beach up to or a little above the 

 low tide limit. Beyond this the slope, which is bare of all organic growth, continues, tailing ofi" 

 finally in a steep about 18 yards further out. The outer line of rocks continues at either end 

 into the outer edge of the reef flat, where the latter exists, suggesting that it shows the 

 former extension of the reef round the whole island. This is of course quite possible, but, 

 if so, it is the only definite case of solution that I have seen within the Miladumadulu bank. 



Kendikolu is one of the largest islands of the Maldives, but only a small part of it is 

 capable of cultivation. It has a rocky belt against the sea with a similar reef to that oS" 

 Ereadu, both together averaging about 150 yards in breadth. This passes somewhat abruptly to 

 the N. and S. into the sandy part of the W. side, which has no reef but a sandy growing 

 beach witli isolated coral patches oS" the same, sloping gradually to 18 or 20 fathoms in about 

 200 yards. Down tlie centre of the island separating the two areas is a series of three lakes, 

 surrounded with mangroves, and separated from one another only by banks covered with the 

 same trees, not improbably in the first place artificially erected by the natives of the island. 

 These lakes are filled with fresh water, but do not attain a greater depth than 5 feet; they 

 average in breadth together with their mangroves about 500 yards. Two saltwater fish, that 

 commonly live in backwaters and ascend rivers, Chanos salmoneics and Gobius criniger\ were found 

 in them. 



Tolandu, Malandu ami Landu all have stony belts, slightly washing away, with the 

 usual narrow reefs to the N. and E. and sandy shores to the S. and W. The first two islands 

 have broader reefs to the W. with pinnacles of rock, but that ofi' this end of Landu is no 

 broader than that ofif its N. or E. shore. A mangrove swamp is said to occur within each of these 

 islands, but I myself only saw the one in Landu. In this island there is a narrow freshwater 

 lake to the N.E., surrounded by mangroves and separated by a rocky belt of 60 yards in breadth 

 from the sea. The area of the swamp is now much restricted, but numerous mangrove swamp 

 plants occur throughout the centre of the island, and the surface of the ground is riddled with 

 tlie large holes of Cardiosoma carnifex, an essentially mangrove swamp crab. The animals of 

 the kuli include three fish, Gerres maldivensis, Mugil coeruleoniaculatus, and Barbus vittatius^, and a 

 prawn, Leander debilis, 



mHafaro west reef (Fig. 100) is nowhere exposed at low tide, and has a very bare appearance, 

 being largely sand-covered, with here and there a patch of low corals. Inside this is a mud flat 



1 Vide " On the Fishes from the Maldive Islands," by C. Tate Regan, vol. i. pt. 3, p. 279 of this Publication. 



