148 J. STANLEY GARDINER. 
Arabia. There is one sounding of 1977 fathoms to the south-west of Suvadiva at 30 miles 
distance, and there are two west-north-west and west-south-west of Minikoi of 2120 and 
2220 fathoms, each at about 100 miles. 
I. Tue Laccapive ARCHIPELAGO!. (Plate VIII.) 
If Minikoi be left out of consideration, this group consists of seventeen banks, round 
each of which the 100 fathom line is continuous. Of these ten have more or less ring- 
shaped reefs or are atolls, one is almost completely covered with a surface reef with land, 
two are large banks with one or more surface reefs and traces of the ring condition, and 
the remainder are completely submerged banks. Elikalpeni, Androth, Kalpeni and Suheli are 
outhers, all probably separated by over 1100 fathoms from one another and the rest, which 
with the possible exception of Kavaratti are included within a common 950 fathom line. 
Of the 
and south. 
atolls, Kiltan, Chetlat and Kavaratti are perfect, of oval-shape, lying almost north 
They resemble Mimkoi in that their eastern reefs are largely covered with land, 
while their western are awash. Kalpeni* has the west reefs bare, but islands for 4 out 
of 7 miles, the length of the bank, along its eastern face. Agatti bank has two atolls. 
Agatti itself, almost exactly resembling Kavaratti to the south, separated by a bank at a 
depth of 7 to 10 fathoms from a northern atoll, with three islands on its eastern reefs. 
The lagoons of the above are extremely shallow, having only about 3 fathoms of water, 
and their passages lie to the north or west. Of the other rmg-banks Cherbaniani is perfect, 
with 3 fathoms of water in its lagoon, sand-banks on the north and east sides, and a few 
coral rocks at the south end, a single passage to the south-east. Suheli to the north is 
also perfect with islets north and south-east, lagoon 6 fathoms and passages north-west. 
Bitra has one island north-east, passage close to same and lagoon 5 fathoms. Byramgore 
and Peremul are less regular, the circumscribing reef of the former being very imperfect, 
except to the south; their lagoons are much broken by coral patches, between which 5 to 
7 fathoms are found. 
Kardamat is an atoll either in a late or an early stage. 
Its reef 
is 5 miles long by 2} broad, lying nearly north-by-east and south-by-west; a narrow island 
1 In considering this group my sources of information 
were in the first place the ‘‘ West Coast of Hindustan Pilot, 
1893,” pp. 365—373, and “ Malabar”? by William Logan, 
Collector (who visited the south islands attached to Calicut 
in 1869 and again in 1887), vol. m1. pp. eclxxy—cecii, 1887. 
I was subsequently through the courtesy of the Chief Secretary 
to the Government of Madras allowed to examine in his 
office at Madras a large number of reports on the islands, 
some unpublished. I have also made use of native sources 
of information to check and extend the above accounts. 
* I have already referred to the effect of the hurricane of 
1847 (p. 21), which was most destructive on this island, 
reaching it at high tide. The following account shows how 
the sea may attain access to any low island, and, if the 
conditions of the region are suitable, its complete erosion 
might rapidly follow. ‘The sea rose and flooded the whole 
but across the narrower part of the mainland; it seems to 
have had tremendous velocity. All the trees, with the very 
soil, and between 50 and 60 houses were washed into the 
ocean with upwards of 200 persons.” ‘Across the broader 
parts of the island the water was not so destructively rapid, 
but so complete was the inundation that the first impression 
of the islanders was that the whole shoal had sunk.” ‘ The 
storm lasted for about an hour in all its violence.” ‘‘ Out of 
upwards of 105,000 full-grown coconut trees, the number 
before the storm, 768 only are now standing.” (‘ Proc. 
Board of Revenue, S. Canara, Aug. 2nd, 1849,”” quoted in 
Malabar, vol. 1. p. cexcix.) In the same storm enormous 
quantities of loose coral appear to have been swept back from 
the shores into the totam, or hollowed-out planting land. 
A large part of the seaward beach was swept almost bare of 
loose coral masses, which were deposited at the south-east 
corner of Kalpeni island, forming a bank 60 feet wide by 12 
feet high above the low tide level. This naturally suggests 
that a large part of the rocky areas of all these islands might 
have been formed in a similar way, but in reference to 
Minikoi I have carefully and at considerable length shown 
the grounds on which I base my view that that island, and 
by inference probably all these islands, owe their origin 
directly or indirectly to some change of level (Chap. m1.). 
