THE MALDIVE AND LACCADIVE ARCHIPELAGOES. 151 
around the position marked 39 fathoms only yielded 27 to 30 fathoms. The lagoon, instead 
of being fairly open, is now near the circumscribing reefs, especially north-east and north- 
west, much filled in by coral shoals. Indeed ships cannot now approach within one and a 
quarter miles of the head of the north-west horn of the lagoon, which is represented as 
open in Moresby’s chart. The land too has very greatly changed, and the seaward edge 
of the reef, particularly round the semicircle to the south and at the two horns (north-east 
and north-west), has grown considerably outwards. It is mainly in the filling in of its lagoon 
and its topography that the atoll differs from the rest, but its varied conditions will be 
more particularly considered in the Appendix to this paper. 
About Fua Mulaku in lat. 0° 18'S. I have no particular information, not having been 
able on account of the heavy gales to land on it. It is an island, surrounded by a reef- 
flat, occupying the northern three-fifths of a bank, 34 miles long by 1£ broad. The bank 
to the south is covered with coral rocks, and has 5 to 8 fathoms of water. The shoal is 
said to have practically no reef-platform, but to slope almost precipitously off the whole 
bank except to the south. The island does not appear to be materially eroding. It is in 
the centre naturally hollowed out to form a large freshwater pool of inconsiderable depth. 
Suvadiva atoll’ hes between the Equator and lat. 1° N., and is 43 miles long from 
north to south by 35 miles from east to west, covering an area of over 800 square miles. 
The bank is nearly completely surrounded by reef, outside which a typical reef-platform, 
wherever we could see, appeared to exist. The circumscribing reef has about 40 passages 
into the lagoon of the atoll in a length of 130 miles. Many of these are extremely narrow, 
two only being over half a mile in width; six have depths of 30 to 36 fathoms, five of 
20 to 29 fathoms, and ten of 10 to 19 fathoms. The shallower passages in particular, but 
to a certain extent all, seem to have narrowed somewhat as compared with the chart, but 
none appeared to have actually closed up, nor have any fresh ones formed. In most cases 
the narrowing has been due to the outgrowth of the reefs on either side, but at the same 
time there may have been a decrease in depth as well. Further, it was remarkable that 
some of the reefs have grown out horns into the lagoon by the passages, a condition not 
found on any other bank*. The islands form a series along the east, south and south-west 
sides of the atoll, the north and north-west parts of the encircling reef beimg almost bare. 
The larger are generally formed of rock on their seaward face and sand against the lagoon. 
Parts of the encircling reef are double, with pools in the centre, having a few fathoms of 
water. This is especially the case to the south-west, but between Nadalle and Hondedu, 
where we particularly examined the reef, many of the pools have come into communication 
with the lagoon of the atoll, the reef between having been wholly or in part removed. 
The lagoon is open and very free from reefs. In a traverse round the whole of the lagoon, 
while dredging, we carefully examined as many of the reef-patches as possible. While locating 
seventy-two marked in the chart, we only failed to find two, and we observed only three 
new shoals. Most of the deeper patches marked with a few fathoms of water are now 
definite surface reefs. The reefs surrounding Hatedu, Labadu and Noorbhai islands have 
grown out somewhat, while a shoal near Budu has been incorporated into its reef. The 
1 For chart see Appendix. growth of reefs into the lagoon was observed on each side of 
? The decrease in width of the passages was particularly  Nilandu and to the south of the passage between Kondai and 
marked on each side of Kudu and Nilandu in the east reef Diyadu. For further particulars and chart see Appendix. 
and between Gan and Gaddu to the south-east. The out- 
G. 20 
