SOUTH MALOSMADULU. 63 



base there are patches of beach rock. The deeper slopes are covered with 

 a magnificent growth of corals extending down to a depth of from twelve 

 to fourteen fathoms, where the corals become patchy and gradually disappear 

 in from eighteen to twenty fathoms in a sandy bottom. The beaches are 

 covered with windrows of small masses of pumice varying from the size of 

 hazel-nuts to that of one's fist. Many cuttle-fish bones and Spirula shells 

 have also been blown up above high-water mark. 



On the outer edge of the rim of Mutalifoori, projecting here and there 

 high above the outer rim, extends a belt of coral boulders. The little island 

 on the western rim is bordered with low sand beaches ; the rim of the 

 faro is comparatively wide, enclosing a small lagoon. The outer belt of 

 the rim flat is thickly covered with great patches of corals which, as off 

 Embudu, seem to be very flourishing on the slopes of the lagoon reef. 

 To the east of our track on the way north about a mile and a half from 

 Mutalifoori, we passed a large elliptical ring with from three to six fathoms 

 in depth and more than two miles in length. On the western side of our 

 track nearly opposite, another faro was passed, fringed on the outer edge 

 of the east face of the rim with irregular patches of boulders. 



We passed close to the eastern extremity of Wakaru, a small island on 

 the eastern point of a large ring with from three to four fathoms in the 

 lagoon. On the east face of Wakaru a steep beach has been thrown high 

 up in the outer belt of bushes. At the eastern point the base of the beach 

 is flanked by stretches of beach rock. 



At both Embudu and Wakaru the outer beaches have been thrown up 

 considerably higher than the general level of the central part of the island. 

 This forms a rim to an inner sink or dish from twelve to eighteen inches 

 or more lower than the summit of the beach. This apparent dishing is 

 quite common among the small central islands of the Maldives, and when 

 it occurs on the rim of an island which is steep to, the inner sink might 

 readily be mistaken for the bottom of a dry lagoon, or for an atoll the 

 lagoon of which had been slightly elevated above the general level of 

 the surrounding reef flat. 



As we passed Megeli we noticed a small, low sand-bar on the southern 

 face of the faro to the west of it, which is not indicated on the chart. 



