TILADUMMATI-MILADUMMADULU PLATEAU. 79 



The southern part of the east face of the Tiladummati-Miladummadalu 

 Plateau is bounded mainly by distant crescent-shaped islands or faros with 

 or without sinks or lagoons, and by two large reef flats, on the eastern rim 

 of one of which there are two islands and on the other Kendikolu Island, 

 one of the largest in the Maldives (PI. 3). On the southeast face there are 

 two large faros with islands occupying the eastern face of the reef flats, 

 one of which. Ma Faro, is over two miles long and forms the southeastern 

 rim of a small atoll about three and a half miles in greatest length. There 

 is an opening with ten fathoms of water on the northeast face, leading 

 into the lagoon of the atoll, which has a greatest depth of about eight. 

 A couple of islets have been thrown up on the northeastern edge of the rim 

 flat. The otlier, Edii Faro, to the south, is also a small atoll bounded on the 

 east b^' a large crescentic island on the outer face of the wide eastern reef 

 flat, which encloses a well-defined, elongated lagoon flanked on the west 

 by a narrow rim flat. It resembles Karidu, but is larger. Atolls similar 

 to Ed 11 Faro, differing, however, in shape, occur on the northern part of 

 the eastern face of Tiladummati. One of them, Hanimadu, is four miles 

 in length. 



By far the most interesting feature of the northern horn of Tiladummati 

 are the three atolls which form its northeastern point (PI. 2). Filadu, the 

 southern atoll, with a long bow-shaped island flanking the eastern reef 

 flat, with sinks in the two club-shaped extremities of the island, and a wide 

 pass of nearly a mile in breadth leading into a circular lagoon of nine 

 fathoms in depth, bounded on the south by a reef flat nearly two miles 

 wide. Kelai, the northern atoll, forming the eastern horn of Tiladummati, is 

 over four miles in length. Its eastern face is flanked by a large hook- 

 shaped island on the outer edge of a wide reef flat, tapering to the west 

 and towards the southwest to form the narrow rim of a large lagoon, 

 with a greatest depth of eight fiithoms. The western rim of the lagoon is 

 narrow, much broken, with narrow passages leading into the lagoon 

 through the open western rim. A small island occupies the western horn 

 of the faro. The western atoll, Warifuri, is a pear-shaped faro with a narrow 

 island on the southern edge of the narrow rim of the eastern reef flat ; 

 the lagoon enclosed by it is circular and a wide triangular western rim 



