8 J. STANLEY GARDINER. 



on the currents in the channels on each side of the island. During my whole stay I 

 dispensed medical aid freely to the people. At this time there was in one district of Male 

 an epidemic of malaria, with which I was naturally much brought into contact. Mr Forster 

 Cooper returned to find that I had caught the infection. I saw, however, our collections 

 to date properly packed for England, and the schooner victualled and equipped. As com- 

 plications set in and I was getting worse instead of better, Mr Forster Cooper on Feb. 28th 

 took advantage of the chance visit of a British India Steamship Co.'s steamer to place me 

 in charge of Capt. Pigott, R.N.R.', for Colombo. He himself determined to carry out his 

 part of the projected work, and sailed from Male on March 3rd for the southern atolls. 



I cannot speak too highly of the pluck, determination and resource, shown by Mr Forster 

 Cooper, who had had no previous experience of the tropics. He worked his native crew 

 in a manner, which I have never seen excelled even in the Pacific, and took no less than 

 88 dredgings in five ditferent atolls. However, I append Mr Forster Cooper's report, which 

 may be allowed to speak for itself: 



" On March .3rd, accompanied by Mahommed Didi as interpreter and representative of 

 the Sultan, I crossed over to S. Male, in which three days were spent. Gurahdu island and 

 reef were visited, but neither land nor reef in the atoll appeared to exhibit any novel 

 features. The group consisting of a series of almost isolated reefs, I dredged principally in 

 the outer passages and in the centre to ascertain the differences in the bottom-fauna. 

 The hauls in the centre were very unproductive, but in the channels a large quantity of 

 the same sessile forms, as in the northern atolls, was brought up. Just inside the northern 

 passage a coral, Goniopora stokesi, was obtained ; it forms round heads on thick stalks, 

 covered by an epitheca, which is completely buried in the sand, or mud. 



" On March 6th we sailed on to Felidu atoll, where we visited Alimata and Tinadu 

 islands alone, at night anchoring generally to the nearest reef. We remained eight days, 

 but only took 18 hauls of the dredges owing to head winds, strong currents across the 

 atoll and dead calms. Indeed throughout the whole cruise the unfavourable winds and the 

 poor sailing qualities of the schooner prevented us from surveying as much of the atolls 

 and from taking as many dredgings, as I would have liked. We attempted for three 

 successive days to get up the almost completely enclosed eastern horn of the atoll, but 

 were unable to tack up more than half-way. The lagoon in it is open with few reefs or 

 shoals, and has a general depth of 40 fathoms ; its bottom is hard, covered with sand, and 

 absolutely unproductive to the dredge. In the rest of the atoll weed and broken shells 

 were found towards the centre of tiie lagoon and rubble in the channels. Diaseris is very 

 common almost everywhere and its skeleton forms one of the chief constituents of the rubble. 



"We fetched Mulaku atoll on March 14th, and remained six days, taking 17 dredgings. 

 The atoll is remarkable for the broad, almost continuous reef along its eastern side. There 

 are a number of very narrow, shallow passages to the north, but from Maduveri to Curaille 

 a distance of 30 miles, the reef is continuous save for a single passage opposite Mulaku 

 island. All the islands lie on the seaward side of this reef; extending down its centre is 

 a series of long, linear velu (small lagoons), which off Raimandu is double, two series lying 

 parallel to one another and the edges of the reef. In dredging I ran two lines across the 

 lagoon, and then moved down along the eastern side. Among other forms we collected a 



' I cannot sufficiently express my indebtedness to this gentleman for all his kindness to me. 



