72 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



miles wide. The northern face of the atoll is angular; its northeastern 

 horn is well defined by Makunudu Island (PI. 31, fig. 2) ; the rounded 

 southern face of the atoll forms its southern horn. 



The lagoon of Makunudu is of considerable depth ; seventeen fathoms 

 are indicated on the chart. As seen from the outer reef flat, it appears 

 to be thickly studded with bars, flats, and heads. There are two shallow 

 passes on the east face of the atoll. 



Immediately south of Makunudu Island lies the small island of Fengbu 

 Hurah, in the centre of the east face the islet of Faro Doru (PI. 33, fig. 1), 

 covered with tall bushes, and on the northwestern horn a cluster of 

 diminutive islets covered with bushes. The reef flat which connects Fengbu 

 Hurah with Makunudu is flanked along its outer edge by coarse shingle, 

 and the islands themselves really constitute one island, connected as they 

 are by long sand spits, forming a more or less continuous coral sand beach 

 between them. 



On the chart the outer reef flat of Makunudu is characterized as a 

 "dry reef." As far as we examined it, and from what we could see looking 

 across the atoll, the outer edge of the narrow reef flat is edged by a low 

 wall of angular coral boulders and heaps of coarse shingle (PI. 32) ; the 

 boulder wall is undercut and greatly weathered. This belt and the 

 shingle heaps form a dry reef, as it were; it extended as far as we could 

 trace it, south to Faro Doru, on the northern face of Makunudu, and on the 

 western face, judging from what we could see looking across the atoll. 

 We examined the wall of weathered coral boulder oflF the east face of 

 Makunudu, where it is better developed than at any other point of the 

 atoll. It seemed to be made up of coral reef rock and coral boulders 

 cemented together, undercut and greatly weathered ; rising above the gen- 

 eral level of the surrounding reef flats, they indicate a slight former eleva- 

 tion at that point. We observed at many places in the Maldives patches of 

 similar reef rock, all pointing to a slight elevation at many and widely 

 scattered localities in the Maldives. The narrow reef flat on the east face 

 of Makunudu Island widens out at its northern face where the low wall of 

 coral boulders is broken through to form a shallow boat passage leading 

 into a small secondary lagoon of moderate depth which connects with the 



