NORTH NILANDU. 107 



the outer edge ; the rim is awash on the northern face where sand is 

 accumulating on the rim flat. 



Furadu (PI. 58, fig. 2), a small island covered entirely with low atoll 

 vegetation, is flanked with steep sand beaches and a narrow reef flat. To 

 the east and north of Furadu, a number of large rings are foinid, one of 

 which is nearly four miles in length. On the south face of Ari a heavy 

 swell coming from the southwest was breaking hard upon the outer edge 

 of the reef flats. The outer flxce of the reef flats of the southern face of Ari 

 was everywhere lined with fine patches of corals. 



The northern part of Ari is not well defined; for a stretch of nearly 

 twelve miles it is open to the northeast ; this long stretch is only broken by 

 one large faro, two much smaller ones, and a few diminutive banks, cropping 

 up at about the thirty-fathom line. The northern parts of Ari and of 

 North Malosmadulu have the open character of Tiladummati and Mila- 

 duraraadulu ; they illustrate the passage between the very open groups to 

 those that are more closed, like North Male and the central groups of the 

 Maldives. 



North Nilandu. 



Platex 1, 4, 5: S b, >;/. 14 : 59-61; 78, fifj. 1. 



The faros in the interior of North Nilandu are large (PI. 5), some of 

 them a mile and a half in diameter. They are principally in the central 

 part of the group ; only a few are near the south and north faces. 



The outer rim of North Nilandu is made up of comparatively few large 

 faros, more numerous on the east face than on the west, of an irregularly 

 elliptical shape, enclosing extensive lagoons ; wide and deep passes separate 

 the faros. The principal islands on the eastern face of the outer rim are 

 small, with four large wooded islands in the interior of the group. The 

 largest of the inner islands is Biladu; it is well wooded, about a mile 

 inside of the pass separating the faros of Adago and Magudu, near the 

 southern part of the east face of North Nilandu ; it is well seen from the 

 sea, across the outer rim of faros. North Nilandu is nearly circular; its 

 greatest length is seventeen miles ; the western face being slightly concave ; 



