ARI. 103 



Ari. 



Plates 1, 4 ; 8 b, Jrgs. 12, H : 8 c, fig. 35 : 55, fig. 2 : 56, 57, 58, fig. ^. 



No island group in the Maldives has the characteristic features of the 

 archipelago so well marked as Ari. We may call it a great agglomeration 

 of banks and faros over an elliptical area fifty miles in length and fifteen 

 in width (PI. 4). The western face of the group is flanked by comparatively 

 few faros, some of considerable size, over five miles in length. The eastern 

 face, on the contrary, is bounded by a great number of small faros and 

 banks, and towards the north the northeast face of Ari is quite open. 

 Within this great area are dotted nearly two hundred lagoon reefs (faros) 

 and banks, many of them, especially in the northern half, over two miles in 

 length. A number of the lagoon reefs are connected with islands. Over 

 twenty islands and islets on banks varying in size from a few yards in 

 length to more than two miles are scattered irregularly through the central 

 part of Ari. There are but few islands on the faros of the west face, while 

 on the east face there are islands on nearly every lagoon reef or bank. 

 Some of the islands are a mile in length. 



The greatest depth of Ari is forty-three fathoms. The majority of the 

 soundings within the group averages thirty fathoms. 



Many of the faros on the east face of Ari are most irregular in outline ; 

 they all tail westward,^ and are separated by deep channels with from 

 twenty to thirty fathoms in the centre of the passes. Shingle or large 

 coral boulders flank the eastern spits of many of the faros, and the surface 

 of the rims of the lagoon reefs is covered with patches of flourishing corals. 



To the north of Midu a pear-shaped faro extends westward for nearly 

 two miles, with two islands on the eastern and southern part of the rim, 

 which encloses a large lagoon with a depth of seven fathoms. Midu itself 

 is a large island occupying nearly the whole of the reef flat upon which 

 it has arisen. 



^ The trend and shape of the islands on the east faces of the northern groups show in general the 

 direction in which the sand is driven from the sea faces to the westward, both by currents and by 

 the prevailing winds. The same effect can be traced on the faros and islands of the interior of the 

 larger basins and on their western or other faces. 



