50 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



depth occurs close to the lagoon face of the outer rim and it slopes suddenly 

 to the general dead level of the great central area of the lagoon.^ 



To the south of Hembadu Pass the faros on the west face of North Male 

 are very similar in structure, though greatly differing in shape and size. 

 The largest one, four miles in length by one and a half wide, immediately 

 to the south of the pass, is edged on the western rim by a wide reef flat, 

 on the eastern by a narrow rim. A small island covered with low bushes 

 rises in the southern part of the western rim of the reef flat. The reef 

 fiats enclose a large lagoon nearly as long as the faro. Running south, 

 parallel with the western face of the outer faros, all the way to Wilingili 

 Island, on the southern face of North Male, we remained in sight of a 

 number of faros of all sizes and shapes. Their western rims are generally 

 wider than the eastern, with deep blue or lighter-colored lagoons, according 

 to their depths, often edged on the east by extremely narrow rims, some of 

 them a mere thread but a few feet in width, the wider reef flats being 

 always the outer rims, as on the east face of North Male. The western 

 edges of the outer x-ims were lined with a belt of great patches of corals 

 extending sometimes across the sandy rim flats of the faro. 



The lagoon of the third faro south of Hembadu Pass is divided into two 

 by a transverse bar like the one of the northeast horn of Mulaku, figured 

 on the Admiralty Chart and mentioned by Mr. Gardiner. The three faros to 

 the south are triangular with narrow rira flats. One of them is nearly two 

 miles wide. The faro at the southwest angle of North Male is narrow, and 

 on its eastern extremity a small island, fairly wooded, has been thrown up. 

 On the eastern extremity of the faro to the west of Wilingili Island a couple 

 of small islands have been thrown up which are not indicated on the charts. 



On the west face of North Male north of Hembadu Pass, heaps of coral 

 boulders occur on the exposed points of the great faros which flank the 

 northern part of the group to the south and to the north. 



^ Mr. Gardiner's statement that in the Maldive Atolls the bottom is perfectly smooth and that no 

 new banks are springing up does not seem in accordance with the soundings of such groups as North 

 Male and North Malosniadulu. In both tliese groups as well as in others are many sand banks and 

 rings with varying depths, of from three to four feet on the rims to five or six fathoms. Nor is it the 

 case in the " jungle," a tract covereil with lumdreds of heads within the twenty-fathom line in the 

 central part of North MalosmaJidu. This as well as the general variation of the soundings shows a far 

 greater range in the depth of the bottom than one would infer from the remarks of Mr. Gardiner. 



