70 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



wasting, clumps of bushes and trees standing isolated on the surrounding 

 reef flats. A coarse shingle beach faces the south side of Wandu ; towards 

 the east and the west the coral sand beach is high and steep. There are 

 no faros on the central part of the east face of North Malosmadulu and 

 only one on the northern and one on the southern extremity of the face ; 

 the other islands are generally steep to with narrow reef flats. The vegeta- 

 tion of these islands is not prominently developed, though occasionally a 

 fine clump of trees rises above the low outer belt of bushes and smaller 

 trees. The vegetation of "Wandu is better developed than that of either 

 Rasmadu or Kuda Kura, the southern beach of which, like that of Kotafuri, 

 is wasting away. The vegetation on Makara is perhaps finer than that of 

 any other island on the east face of North Malosmadulu ; it consists mainly 

 of extensive clumps of large trees. The island is surrounded by coral sand 

 beaches with little or no shingle; while on the other islands on the east 

 face of the group the eastern extremities are flanked with shingle. 



On Inamadu very coarse shingle extends from the eastern point half- 

 way towards the western extremity on the southern face of the island, 

 where it suddenly changes to fine coral sand. The beaches of the 

 east face of North Malosmadulu are less steep than those of the islands 

 in the interior of the group or on the west face of North Malosmadulu. 

 The islands to the north of Inamadu have the same general character ; 

 the vegetation is fairly developed ; they are all steep to on the southern and 

 northern faces, with spits or reef flats extending to the westward, but 

 steepest at the eastern points, where the reef flats are narrow and the 

 islands are edged with steep shingle and boulder beaches. On the north 

 faces the shingle and coral sand beaches are distributed much as on the 

 southern faces of the islands. 



Kuda Kura is a long narrow island with scanty vegetation ; it is nearly 

 in the centre of an extensive reef flat projecting to the westward. A 

 somewhat smaller reef flat, edged by a belt of small coral boulders, forms 

 the eastern point of the island, which terminates in a steep shingle beach. 

 An exceedingly coarse shingle beach has been thrown up on the east face 

 of Rasmadu, as well as on the northeastern horn of Inamadu, where the 

 shingle has been forced inland between the trees over the summit of 



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