KARIDU. 55 



its slight protection by the east horn of South Malosmadulu ; he recognizes 

 the former recent connection of Fehendu and Furudu which were probably 

 formed by the piling up of sand on the flats fringing the lagoon. Accord- 

 ing to him, " the lagoon is increasing in size at the expense of its en- 

 circling reef," the outer contour of his figure being the same as that on 

 the Admiralty Chart, but the reef flat is charted much broader than in 

 Mr. Gardiner's figures.^ Furudu Island is wasting away.^ 



Karidu. 



Plates 1, S ; 8h, fig. 11; 21. 



Karidu is a small elliptical atoll about two miles in greatest diameter, 

 nearly halfway between Gaha Faro and Fadiffolu. It rises abruptly in a chan- 

 nel nearly thirty miles across, from a depth of about three hundred fathoms. 

 It would be called a faro were it placed on the face or the central area 

 of one of the larger of the Maldive groups. A wide curved island, follow- 

 ing the line of the reef flat, occupies the greater part of its southern rim, 

 to the west of which rises a small islet. The reef flats to the north 

 and south are shallow and enclose a comparatively shallow lagoon. The 

 point of the south face of the east end of Karidu is covered with coarse 

 shingle ; that part of the island is steep to ; the reef flat gradually widens to 

 the west ; along the centre of the south face of Karidu rises a steep 

 shingle beach which extends to the base of the outer belt of low bushes. 

 A few large forest trees grow in the centre of the island, much of the 

 vegetation of Karidu is dead ; many of the bushes formerly above the 

 beaches now stand in the water on the edge of the reef flat. 



At the western extremity of Karidu the central shingle beach has 

 gradually passed into a coral sand beach which extends in an ill-defined 

 sand spit along the narrow reef flats of the northern face of Karidu. On 

 the reef flats corals abound ; huge patches extend from the outer rim 

 of the atoll towards the lagoon. On the shallow northern reef flat the 

 breakers due to the northeast monsoon form an almost continuous line. 



1 Loc. cit.. fig. 90, p. 377. 2 Loc. cit., fig. 91, p. 378. 



