NOETH MALOSMADULU. 65 



the northern face of South Malosmadulu, and flanked by high and steep 

 sand beaches. Kari Faro (PI. 29, fig. 1), a large faro to the west of Karidu, 

 has at the western extremity a broad crescent-shaped reef flat with steep 

 sand beaches, and a narrow elliptical lagoon of a dark blue color, from three 

 to four fathoms in depth ; the extremity of its eastern rim is occupied by a 

 small sand-bar topped by a clump of vegetation. 



Many of the islands of both North, Middle, and South Malosmadulu 

 appear as slightly dished on account of the height to which the summits 

 of the encircling beaches have been thrown up. Mararrekellu, an island 

 on the northwestern face, is, like Karidu, steep to, with steep coral sand 

 beaches, and covered by a scanty vegetation. Anghenufuri, marked as a 

 small lagoon flat to the east of Mararrekellu, since 1836 has become en- 

 tirely filled. It is now an islet on the eastern flank of a small reef flat. 

 Many of the smaller islands of this part of Middle Malosmadulu seem to 

 be old faros of which the lagoons have been silted up, and subsequently the 

 islands have encroached on the reef flats so as to occupy the whole of the 

 former area of the faro and the surrounding reef flats. So that former 

 diminutive circular barrier reefs have gradually been changed to fringing 

 reefs, as Karidu has in part. 



Xorth Malosmadulu. 



Plates 1, S : 8 a, fig. 5 : S b, fig. 9 ; 8 c, fig. 26 : 30 : 31, fig. 1. 



The northern extremity of North Malosmadulu is open like that of Ari 

 (PI. 3) ; on the northern part of the eastern and western faces the faros 

 and islands are more distant and separated by wider and deeper passes 

 than in the southern half of the group. Comparatively few faros, rings, 

 and islands occur in the interior of the northern half of North Malosmadulu, 

 and in a belt parallel to the southern part of the east face. But in the 

 central part of North Malosmadulu, towards the western face, the twenty- 

 fathom line encloses a large area with innumerable islands, islets, sand-bars, 

 faros, and coral heads. The southern part of this area is flanked by a belt 

 of a few more widely separated large islands and faros. The islands on 

 the east face of North Malosmadulu are large (as Maldive Islands go), and 



