68 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE ^MALDIVES. 



a narrow flat, the outer edge of which is indicated by a line of small 

 coral boulders. 



The island of Fusmundu fills the eastern rim of a well-defined faro about 

 a mile in length. It is flanked by high steep coral sand beaches. The outer 

 northwestern edge of the rim of the faro is lined with small coral boulders. 

 From the great height of the beaches enclosing the central part of the island 

 it presents a dished appearance. A few fine large trees rise in the central 

 part of the island, but many bushes and smaller trees of the outer belt 

 have been killed by the spreading sand or are in a dying condition from the 

 encroachment of the sea. 



To the eastward we came upon Muduwari, a small nearly circular 

 island occupying the greater part of the flat upon which it has been thrown 

 up. The coral sand beaches are high and steep, the summit of the beach 

 rising far above the central part of the island. The island seems to be 

 wasting away ; a small islet covered with a little vegetation once a part of 

 the main islet now stands isolated upon the reef flat near the eastern point 

 of the island. 



On the central part of the north side of Hoholundu Island sand has been 

 blown from the summit of the high sand beaches well towards the interior, 

 and has overwhelmed many of the bushes of the outer belt and buried the 

 base of a number of the larger trees. Hoholundu Island, like the islands 

 we have just described, occupies the eastern rim of the flat upon which it 

 has developed. Hoholundu Faro is nearly a mile and a half in length. 



At no time during our cruise through the Maldives did we pass 

 through a region containing so many banks, rings, faros, heads, islands, and 

 islets as on our way from Maregiri to Medu, when we cut across the only 

 part of the labyrinth of North Malosmadulu which seemed to promise a 

 clear passage. The various islands, the different kinds of flats, bars, rings, 

 and faros in the interior of North Malosmadulu, differ in no way from those 

 on the outer rim of the so-called atoll of North Malosmadulu. They have 

 all been formed in the same way both in the interior of the group and on 

 the outer belt. The outer faros and islands being more exposed to the 

 modifying influences due to currents and the action of the winds, have 

 developed more freely and with greater rapidity. Yet some of the islands 



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