SOUTH MALE, FELIDU AND MULAKU. 403 



Barosse, but it was quite impossible to reconcile the existing reefs in this neighbourhood 



with those drawn in the chart. Some seemed to have become joined together, while others 



had bodily shifted their positions — or fresh ones of large size had grown up — and yet of 

 still more no trace could be found. 



On the whole the changes in North Male lagoon were so great, and beyond our 

 experiences in other parts of the Archipelago, that I could only conclude that they were 

 either due to so-called " corrections" of the original chart, or to difficulties that we know 

 to have existed in making the first survey, and which would necessarily have been very great 

 nearest Male, the Sultan's island. Owing to this, with the insufficient means at my command, 

 it did not seem to me worth while examining the area, as otherwise I had intended. 

 I may, however, remark that in my opinion, in which my companion concurs, this was the 

 only part of the whole Maldive group that we saw, where there could have been any such 

 inaccuracy in the original survey. Indeed, the south half of North Male atoll for this reason, 

 and also in the interests of trade, all vessels entering at Male island, demands to be 

 resurveyed in a proper manner. 



With regard to the land five fresh sand banks were seen by Mr Forster Cooper between 

 Male and Hembadu to the south-west of the atoll, all on inner reefs, while two islands of 

 the east rim were found to have been washed away. All the islands within the lagoon 

 and most of those of the rim are of sand. Where within the lagoon the island covers the 

 most of its bank, such as Wagrenfaro, Hefuri and the two Bundusi, there is no living reef, 

 and the island is washing away, whereas, if there is a large reef or faro, loss is more than 

 counterbalanced by gain. None of these inner islands show any signs of elevated rock, and 

 it is probable that all owe their existence solely to the piling up of sand from the atoll 

 lagoon. The same seems to be true of most or all of the islands on the western rim, but 

 on many of the east rim reefs elevated rock is found behind which the sand, forming the 

 larger areas of the several islands, was probably by the same means heaped up. This was 

 jDarticularly the case off Hulule, where between the boulder zone of the reef and the island 

 a series of masses of the elevated rock was found on the sand-flat. Their position here 

 about 30 yards behind the boulder zone shows the former extension of the land, and also 

 points to a considerAble outgi'owth of the reef to seaward, sufficient at the least to have 

 formed the reef-flat since the original elevation took place. 



VII. South Male, Felidu and Mulaku. 



I have very little to record about these banks. They show remarkably little change in 

 the contours of their reefs since the original survey was made. Some islands have formed, 

 while others have washed away. As on other atolls the rule on the east rim is a washing 

 away at the seaward ends of the islands, bounding, or off, which elevated rock is commonly 

 found. There is a tendency for the formation of fresh islands — mostly at present mere sand- 

 banks — along the encircling reefs, wherever they extend in a more or less east and west 

 direction. The most remarkable example of this is the Hurasfinolo reef in South Male, to 

 the north of which five such banks have formed. On the whole there is curiously little land 

 to the north and south of these atolls as compared with others in the group, and this is still 

 more especially the case on the west side, particularly when considered in conjunction with 

 the more perfect atolls to the south. Such land as there is on the latter side is mostly 



a. 52 



