CONCLUDING NOTES. 421 



Malosmadiilu. In the center of Kardiva Channel on the two sides of Kardiva island we 

 obtained 312 and 298 fathoms with 372 fathoms one-and-a-half miles south of Fadiffolu 

 atoll. One hundred fathoms was obtained in the center of the channel between Gafaru and 

 North Male. Between North and South Male in the center of Wadu Channel we got a 

 depth of 260 fathoms'. In the center of Fulidu Channel separating South Male and Felidu 

 atoll we found 374 fathoms. In the channel north of Wattaru Reef we found 283 fiithoms ; 

 in Wattaru Channel between Wattaru reefs and Mulaku atoll 253 fathoms, and between 

 Mulaku and Kolumadulu the depth in the center of the channel increased to 648 fathoms. 

 Returning now to the groups of the western chain of atolls we found 231 fathoms in the 

 Ariyaddu Channel between Ari and North Nilandu. The charts indicate 200 fathoms in the 

 center of the channel between North and South Nilandu, and between it and Kolumadulu, 

 the northernmost of the southern single chain of atolls, we found 251 fathoms in the center 

 of the channel. 



" In the wider channels separating t d atolls of the southern single chain the depths 

 become much greater. In the center of the Veimandu Channel, which separates Kolumadulu 

 and Haddumati, the depth had increased to 1118 fathoms, and halfway between it (Haddumati) 

 and Suvadiva we found a depth of 1130 fathoms. In the wide channel between Suvadiva 

 and Addu we found 1292 fathoms a little to the north of Fua Mulaku, and 1048 fathoms 

 between it and Addu. At a distance of four-and-a-half miles to the south of Addu we 

 ran into 718 fathoms." 



In the body of this Paper, particularly in Chapter vi. on North Mahlosmadulu, I have 

 laid great stress on the changes shown by the islands, reefs and faro since the original 

 survey of Capt. Moresby in 1834-6. Any single change might well be due to an error, 

 but the vast mnjority of these small differences point in the same direction. I accordingly 

 maintain that these diversities show real changes and indicate the actual development now 

 going on in the Maldive Group. Even without the comparison with the original charts the 

 facts, if correctly stated above, as to the changes now in progress are sufficient to prove 

 most of the changes, which the comparison perhaps more clearly brings out. Even for Addu 

 Atoll, which so markedly differs from the rest of the banks, I cannot but suppose that 

 the alterations found are real ones. Adm. Sir W. L. Wharton, however, when I lectured 

 before the Royal Geographical Society, sounded a note of caution^, which his high authority 

 impels me to quote at length. "There is one point I think I ought to mention. I do 

 not quite think that Mr Gardiner can rely so implicitly as he does upon the exact accuracy 

 of the shape of these little atollons (faro) in the Maldives as they were mapped by Capt. 

 Moresby. If you come to think of it, this long line of islands extends for nearly 500 miles 

 in a double line and over considerable width, and was mapped during three seasons in a 

 small sailing vessel, and it is quite impossible — I know what the system of surveying of 

 that day was — is quite impossible that the reefs could have been more than very, very 

 roughly sketched." " In a great many cases it is noted down in the original surveys ' depth 

 given by the natives,' ' depth reported,' and so on. This has (sometimes) been left out in 

 the published chart to simplify matters." 



Of other questions not already dealt with in the body of this paper a reference may 

 be made to the food of the reef-building corals, on which a number of observations were 



' I take this opportunity of correcting an error on p. 11, " S.E. J E." 

 line 2 of the " Introduction" to this Publication in respect to ^ Geogr. Jour., vol. xix. no. 3, p. 297 (1902). 



the single deep sounding we made; for " S.W. J W." read 



54—2 



