MALOSMADULU PLATEAU. 57 



to, well wooded, and separated by deep passes. It has, like Ari, many faros 

 and rings within the enclosed basin of the group ; the central basin, inside 

 the twenty-fathom line, is crowded with a mass of faros, islands, banks, 

 bars, rings, and heads, which constitute a perfect labyrinth and render the 

 navigation of that part of North Malosmadulu impracticable. 



The islands near our track, both in South, Middle, and North Malosmadulu, 

 seem to have been built on one pattern. At first they are small banks 

 without vegetation thrown up on the rim of a small flat or faro. The bank 

 gradually increases in size, occupying a larger part of the rim. The lagoon 

 then becomes silted up, and eventually the sand bank occupies the greater 

 part of the area of the faro, becoming clothed with vegetation as it increases 

 in size, and finally passing into a wooded island, steep to or with a narrow 

 reef flat, as in Wadu, Medu, and other islands in the southern part of 

 North Malosmadulu, or of Karidu, Mararrekellu, and Anghenufuri in Middle 

 Malosmadulu and Kendu, Hurudvi, and others on the northern and southern 

 faces of South Malosmadulu. 



The deepest sounding indicated in the South Malosmadulu group is thirty- 

 eight fathoms ; the greater number of the soundings are between twenty -five 

 and thirty fathoms. In North Malosmadulu thirty-one fathoms is the 

 deepest sounding indicated on the chart, and outside of the area enclosed 

 by the twenty-fathom line the average of the soundings is between twenty 

 and twenty-five fathoms. In Middle Malosmadulu the deepest sounding 

 is twenty-seven fathoms, the soundings average about twenty fathoms. 



It is interesting to compare the position of the atoll of Goifurfehendu 

 (Pis. 1, 3), separated from South Malosmadulu by a channel nearly six 

 miles in width and a greatest depth of three hundred and two fathoms, with 

 that of the typical Maldivian group of South Malosmadulu, separated from 

 Middle Malosmadulu by a channel varying in width from one to two 

 miles with a greatest depth of one hundred and forty fathoms, or with 

 that of Middle Malosmadulu, divided from North Malosmadulu by a channel 

 of nearly three miles in width, and a greatest depth of one hundred and 

 thirty-five fathoms. Contrast this with Femfuri Faro, which is north 

 of the southwest horn of North Malosmadulu and separated from the 

 faros to the north and to the south by channels, the one about a mile and 



