396 



J. STANLEY GARDINER. 



removed from the lagoon side of the land towards the N. of the bank, while it has somewhat 



accumulated to the S. In the centre, where the islands approach one another, 



there is marked washing away of the land and much fallen timber. The N. 



end of the S. island has been cut off and broken into four separate islands, 



three on the reef flat mainly formed of rock, and one against the lagoon 



of sand. 



Miladu is a sandy islet with a stony beach of broken corals and of sand- 

 stone to the N., S. and E., where there has been considerable loss. There 

 is no definite reef round the land, but a belt of shallow water is found with 

 patches of corals and other organisms arising on a sandy bed. Magudu and 

 Rohi were not visited but, viewed in passing, appeared to be precisely similar 

 in structure to the last island. 



V. Fadifolu (Fig. 103). 



Fadifolu ranks in the Maldives as one of the more circumscribed and ( 

 definite atolls of the group on account of its single line of reef, almost 

 completely encircling save to the S.W., and the open nature of its lagoon, 

 which is free from any large shoals and islands. In respect to the latter 

 the last two islands left, the Innagiri — shown in the chart of 1836 — have pio. i^^Edufaro Is- 

 been completely washed away. Records, however, are still preserved of four lands and Keef. 

 other islets on shoals in the centre of the atoll-lagoon, that had gone even 

 before Moresby's chart was made. One of these of peculiar sanctity was stated to have 

 existed on a reef marked on Moresby's chart with soundings of from 10 to 15 fathoms. For 

 an island to have been situated anywhere in this area its condition must have been very 

 different formerly to that of the present day, consisting as it does of a number of very small 

 reef patches, occupying a considerable area, none large enough to support land. In respect 

 to the present actions on all these shoals within the lagoon our observations were not 

 sufficiently numerous to deduce any changes, but by analogy with the more enclosed parts 

 of Mahlos it is clear that they are breaking up into smaller reefs and being removed. 



The relatively dead nature of the inner parts of the encircling reefs everywhere against 

 the more enclosed areas of the lagoon of Fadifolu and the changes, more particularly noticed 

 at Inawari, Naifaro and Difuri, leave no doubt but that the lagoon is increasing on all 

 sides at the expense of these reefs. In this connection it is interesting to observe that 

 our dredgings showed the bottom of the lagoon to be quite smooth, \vith no signs of growing 

 organisms, that might in time form definite shoals, and covered with a thin coating of sand, 

 in most places on a hard (? rock) bottom. 



A close comparison of the present day conditions of the passages into the atoll with 

 those of the chart was impossible though eminently desirable. On each side of many of 

 these channels towards their seaward ends distinct points were found, extending out from 

 their bounding reefs, which might by growing together ultimately obliterate at least many 

 of them. Instances were found, too, of separate reefs of the rim that have become fused. 

 Our impression certainly was that everywhere the rim reefs were growing together to form 

 a single enclosing band, though of course there are physical reasons against its being likely 

 that this consummation can ever be completely effected. 



