2 J. STANLEY GAEDINER. 



the island. A small settlement formerly existed round the shrine, but it has long been 

 abandoned, and the jungle near it is now far thicker and less trodden than elsewhere. 

 The land has the same character up to the village, but further north it is much more 

 open, and can indeed be traversed almost anywhere'. Our situation then was not unnaturally 

 the best possible for the land fauna, on which the lighthouse lamp too had doubtless no 

 inconsiderable influence. The open ride formed both by night and day our best collecting 

 ground, sugaring never meeting with any measure of success elsewhere. 



For marine observations and collecting, we had within a stone's throw of the house 

 on the seaward face of the island a broad reef-flat, on which the sea continually breaks. 

 Towards the north this gradually narrows, but westwards broadens, and continues round the 

 atoll. A broad boulder zone, which can be waded conveniently up to half- tide, extends the 

 main (Minikoi) island inside the reef- flat to Wiringili and thence to Ragandi and round the 

 atoll. These islets are mere rocky patches, the former with a few coconut trees, under the 

 shade of which strangers are buried. Towards the lagoon there is a great sand-flat, exposed 

 at spring tides from 100 to 200 yards from the beach. The situation was also chosen, as 

 during the summer months the south-west monsoon blows, the effect of which I wished 

 particularly to study. Unfortunately the monsoon of 1899 was very abnormal, the prevailing 

 winds coming from west to west-north-west until the second week in August, when the 

 proper monsoon commenced, bringing heavy rain in its train. The latter made work 

 extremely difficult and unjjleasant ; the bottom could nowhere be seen on account of the 

 surface disturbance; bottom living animals contracted, or retired into the sand or other 

 shelters; the surface fauna sank to considerable depths. 



The disadvantages of the position lay in the considerable distance of the house from 

 the village and from the north passage into the lagoon, through which alone access to the 

 open sea could be obtained in this monsoon. Natives had to be hired from the village for 

 each several job, and it was too far for the children or fishermen to bring any strange 

 animals they might find. The wind being dead in our teeth, and the numerous shoals 

 making short tacks necessary, it was difficult to visit the northerly reefs of the atoll, and 

 on no occasion was I enabled to approach them from seaward within about 200 yards. 



During the months of July and August a heavy easterly swell came up with large 

 rollers, three times dying down and again regaining force. This swell was very abnormal 

 at the time of year, and apparently was due to some cause completely outside the ordinary 

 winds and currents. On enquiry I ascertained that it was also observed on the east coasts 

 of Ceylon and India and on the large Ocean Liners proceeding from Ceylon to Albany. 

 Subsequently I found that it had been felt throughout the whole of the Maldives ; in Suvadiva 

 and Addu it did considerable damage, sweeping over islets and land, which had never been 



1 Owing to an old arrangement the produce of half the old line of division as found was retained permanently with 



island is deemed to belong to the Bebe of Cannanore. An much injustice to the inhabitants, as it had been formerly 



arbitrary line of division exists near the village with gates periodically open to revision. Since that time the north 



and guards, who rigorously exact three-fifths of the coconuts half of the island has been very rapidly washing away, while 



gathered south of the fence. In this portion uo timber of the south half has, if anything, been increasing somewhat 



large size or old growth exists, the whole surface at one time in breadth. The north half cannot now annually support 



having been cleared and planted. Subsequently on the hold one-third of the present population, while the south has 



of the Bebe becoming weakened or relaxed, vegetation was become a dense jungle, rapidly going to waste. It produces 



allowed again to assume its sway, resulting in the present annually under the present system only a few hundred rupees' 



dense, jungly growth. On the management of the Bebe's worth of coconuts, which the government might well commute 



dominions being undertaken by the British Government, the for a fixed annual charge. 



