78 THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



TILADUMMATI-MILADUMMADULU PLATEAU. 



Plates 1, 2, 3; 8 a, figs. 2-4, 5, 7 ; S^,fig. 2; 85-58; 79, fig. 8. 



MiLADUMMADULU and Tiladummati, the largest and nearly northernmost 

 groups of the Maldives, are in reality parts of the same plateau ; their 

 boundary is an artificial one, a mere political division line running east and 

 west south of Mavaida (Pis. 2, 3). This great northern plateau is fully 

 eighty miles in length with a greatest breadth of twenty and a minimum 

 width of ten miles. It is in striking contrast to the southern groups, of 

 which the outer faces are more or less well defined by belts of faros or 

 of islands, or by reef flats as in Ari, North and South Malosmadulu, North 

 and South Male, North and South Nilandu (Pis. 1, 4, 5). The outer faces 

 are still better defined in the more southern groups like Mulaku, Felidu, 

 Kolumadulu, Haddummati, Siivadiva and in such smaller atolls as Addu, 

 Goifurfehendu, Makunudu, IhavandifFulu, Wataru, Gaha Faro, and Karidu. 



This northern part of the Maldivian plateau forms a great arc convex 

 to the west with a slight indentation in the central part of the western 

 face and one less marked to the south (Pis. 2, 3). On the east face, how- 

 ever, are two great bights nearly fifteen miles across, forming re-entering 

 curves. The southern part of the interior of the plateau is studded for 

 twenty miles with distant islands and faros, some of them of considerable 

 size. They are, however, few in number compared with the many islands, 

 faros, and banks often crowded together as in parts of the interior of 

 North and South Malosmadulu and in some of the central groups like Ari, 

 North and South Male, and Nilandu. In the central part of the plateau the 

 islands are less numerous than in the southern part; there are only fifteen 

 in a distance of nearly forty miles, leaving that part of the plateau quite 

 an open sea. In the northern exti'emity of the plateau the islands are 

 again somewhat more numerous ; there are nineteen of them, all except 

 five of considerable size, the largest of the interior islands of Tiladummati. 



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