48 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



(PI. 17, fig. 1) is a small island on the eastern edge of a small lagoon, less 

 than a quarter of a mile in length. Hitty (PI. 17, fig. 2) is a small island 

 a couple of miles east of the great faro on the central part of the western 

 edge of North Male ; it is on the southern extremity of an elliptical ring 

 enclosing a deep lagoon. Hitty is flanked by a hook-like faro, with a broad 

 eastern rim and open to the north. To the north we passed a similar 

 double faro on our way to Hembadu. A small island covered with trees 

 occupies the greater part of the rim, which separates the two loops of the 

 adjoining faros. 



On our way across the Male group, we passed a number of coral patches 

 or sand-bars of irregular or circular shape, at varying depths below the 

 surface, the color of the patch indicating fairly its depth below the surface. 

 Many of the flats were covered here and there with irregular patches of 

 corals, but as a rule they were not flourishing and not to be compared with 

 the vigorous growth on their slopes. 



One of the rings we passed enclosed a well-marked blue lagoon indicat- 

 ing at least seven to eight fathoms ; its rim extended to the westward in a 

 long spit awash, on which sand-bars were forming. The spit was separated 

 by a deep channel from a narrow sand bank covered with but a few feet 

 of water. To the north rose small faros and banks, on the rims of which 

 corals were growing in great profusion. One large circular faro was 

 specially noted for its diminutive lagoon, the only indication left of a 

 former larger lagoon which has gradually been filled up by the sand driven 

 from both sides across the rim, and deposited on the bottom of the lagoon 

 during the prevailing monsoons. 



To the south of Hembadu we could see three interesting stages in the de- 

 velopment of a faro. In the immediate foreground rose a large, irregularly 

 circular reef flat of a light green color, its rim edged with closely packed 

 great violet brown patches of corals, extending down along the outer slopes 

 of the faro into twelve or fifteen fathoms ; on the northern face a small, 

 bare sand bank had been thrown up on the reef rim flat. To the west 

 a shallow lagoon of considerable size occupied the greater part of that side 

 of the faro. Immediately to the north of this rose a small elliptical bank, 

 its surface covered with a magnificent growth of corals in six to seven feet 



