FADIFFOLU. 73 



larger lagoon round the northern point of the island. The coral sand 

 beaches of the northern part of Makunudu Island are high and steep, 

 the beaches of the southeastern face are flanked at the base with reaches of 

 beach rock. Occasionally a larger coral boulder rises on the outer edge of 

 the I'eef flat above the general outline of the low wall. 



On the outer edge of the reef flat of the northeastern horn of the atoll 

 (PI. 32), thrown up along a part of the low boulder wall, lies a small island 

 covered with a clump of bushes. The existence of this islet in its present 

 position, identical with that marked on the chart, seems to indicate that no 

 great changes have taken place in the topography of the northern part of 

 Makunudu, in spite of the existence of the fringing coral boulder wall 

 which has been in part elevated and in part probably thrown up on the 

 east face by the northeast monsoon and on the west face by the southwest 

 monsoon. 



Padiffolu. 



Plates 1, 3 : 8 a, fg. 4 .■ S h, fg. 11 : 8 e, fig. 28 ; 33, fig. 2 : 34, fig. 1. 



The southeastern face of Fadiffolu (PI. 3) is bounded by a reef flat, the 

 greater part of which is nearly two miles wide. Aligau, a small island, 

 occupies the southwestern horn of the group ; a belt of boulders edges its 

 southern point ; the northern and western faces of the island are flanked by 

 sand beaches. The vegetation of Aligau (PI. 33, fig. 2) is not flourishing ; 

 much of it is in a dying condition. A belt of coral boulders and heaps of 

 shingle extend along the outer edge of the eastern reef flat. There are 

 comparatively few islands on the eastern reef flat, though one of them, 

 Difuri,^ is over three miles long. 



^ Loc. cit., fig. 103, p. 397, shows the changes observed by Mr. Gardiner in Moresby's Chart of 

 Fadiffolu. It seems to me rather hazardous to base upon native records of the former existence of islets 

 and shoals in the centre of the lagoon any conclusions as to the breaking up of reefs and shoals in the 

 enclosed parts of Fadiffolu. AVith such deep and wide openings as exist on the southwest face of Fadiffolu 

 and from the existence of the broad reef flats on the eastern faces over which a great amount of water 

 incessantly passes, it can hardly be called " one of the more circumscribed atolls.'' It is difficult to 

 reconcile Mr. Gardiner's statement that " the lagoon is increasing on all sides at the expense of the 

 encircling reefs " (p. 396) with the impression " that everywhere the rim reefs were growing together 

 to form a single enclosing band." 



The position of Inawari {loc. cit., p. 399) " too far west on its reef " may be due to its eastern migra- 

 tion, as is the case of many other sandy islands which increase either to the east or west or migrate bodily. 



