NORTH MAHLOS BANK. 165 
series may be found from reefs almost completely covered with land to typical faro. The 
land in this situation was all formed by sand, most of it probably heaped up by the waves, 
but some perhaps elevated. Every island now shows washing away, but its rate is neither 
necessarily nor generally the same on every side of any island, and in places there may 
even be an extension of the land. Limbo-Kandu has a barrier of sand above a steep beach, 
heaped up behind to a height of 12 feet and surrounding a central flat 5 to 6 feet lower. 
Around it is found a bare reef with a rather indefinite flat, sloping very gradually from 
the base of the beach, the 1 fathom line being 30 yards distant to the south and about 
twice as far to the north. Off the north and east of Cunderudu the reef is similar, but 
rather broader and with a definite flat; around the south-west end however it is 70 yards 
to the edge of the reef-flat, and a boat-channel is enclosed with 2 to 3 feet of water, 
30 yards broad. Meda is very similar, its boat-channel extending only 
along the north side with about 3 feet of water. The reef round 
Mudduwari (fig. 31) is 180 yards distant on its west side and 70 yards a 
on the east; the boat-channel continues right round the whole island, + Js 
with 3 feet of water on the east side and, according to the natives, more | 
! 

than a fathom on the west. Hoohoolundu, Ourah and Fusmundu all show / : 
an increased distance between the reef and the land, and large pools on ie : 
their west sides, where the erosion has been much the greatest. The Fe 
latter island is situated on the extreme east end of the reef, and the \a : 
washing away seems to have been entirely at the west, where the pool i 
is 1 to 2 fathoms deep. Fahrifuri is similar, the reef being 600 yards a ceteae 
distant to the west-north-west and enclosing a pool of 3 fathoms in depth. fic. 31. Mudduwari 
With the increase of the distance of the reef from the land the channel Island and reef. 4. 
has become a definite little lagoon or velu, and the reef a faro. That aye ae poe 
the islands on each of the above reefs extended over the greater parts B ‘Misael oPitecsn 
of their surfaces there can be no doubt. In many places, stretching sandstone. (Sound- 
across the boat-channels, one finds masses and lines of beach-rock, which ings in fathoms.) 
have not been washed away, and in some these or coral masses occur 
on the inner parts of the flats of the reefs. A small island on the reef at Mudduwari 
(fig. 31) has only within man’s memory been cut off from the land, and at Fusmundu 
and Fahrifuri isolated rocks may be seen round the greater part of the velu. Wakaru is 
especially interesting as—the original island was a great religious centre—the natives have 
preserved records of it for the last 150 years. It had at one time three mosques, to which 
pilgrimages were made. The island was densely inhabited and of considerable size, covering 
the most of its shoal. In Moresby’s chart it is seen to the north of Mudduwari and 
Filladu, and marked as having a “tuft of cocoa trees,’ which coconuts were evidently of 
considerable size for the island to have been especially selected for notice. Now only a 
small sand-bank, covered over at high tide, is found on the east end, and the reef has 
become a definite faro with small velu. The three banks west and to the north of Limbo- 
Kandu have traces of the original land in a few rocks, covered over and protected by 
worm tubes, but otherwise are all faro, The last stages of all are visible in the faro of 
the west rim, but, before considering these, it is necessary to examine the reefs themselves 
further. 
I have already mentioned the characters of the seaward reefs off the islands of the 
rim, but the reefs towards the lagoon are very different. In the first place the presence 
