130- THE CORAL REEFS OF THE MALDIVES. 



On the southern part of the eastern land rim of Haddummati are two 

 long islands, Funadu and Gang ; the last, nearly four miles long, is one of 

 the longest islands of the Maldives. Between Gadu and Funadu the outer 

 edge of the reef flat is edged by a narrow belt of small coral boulders ; at 

 the western point of Funadu we came upon an extensive and much wider 

 boulder belt than is generally found in similar positions in the Maldives. 

 From the inner edge of the boulder belt long lines of small boulders and of 

 shingle run to the westward. At many points the boulders have become 

 cemented, and are deeply undercut, pitted, and honeycombed, forming occa- 

 sionally a low wall on the sea face of the reef flats. During the northeast 

 monsoon a slight surf breaks upon it and dies out very gradually beyond the 

 boulder zone. There is a marked contrast between the very moderate 

 forces at work on the outer faces of the Maldives, and the action of the 

 gigantic Pacific rollers which pound incessantly upon the narrow and steep 

 reef flats of the Pacific atolls. On the western faces of the Maldives the 

 sea is much higher during the season of the southwest monsoons than it is 

 on the eastern faces during the northeast monsoons, yet it never attains as 

 great a heiglit, and the surf never has the carrying power of the seas rolling 

 north from the Southern Ocean and often transporting colossal masses of 

 rocks high up on the beaches, or forming extensive boulder flats or high 

 dams along miles of the sea face of some of the tropical Pacific atolls. 



In the Maldives the boulder belt is generally narrow, the dams formed 

 by it are low, and the boulders themselves diminutive compared to the 

 size of the boulders in the Pacific. It is interesting to compare views of 

 the boulder belts of the Pacific and Indian oceans: such regions as the great 

 boulder flats of Aki, of Rangiroa, and of Makemo in the Paumotus, the dam 

 at Taritari,' with the boulder belt at Kureli Island, in the southern part of 

 Mulaku (PI. 65, fig. 2), the finest example we have seen in the Maldives. 



On the sea face of Funadu the beaches are steep and flanked at the base 

 with stretches of beach rock. Between Funadu and Kadu, the second 

 island south of Gang, a large bay has been formed, closed on the sea face by 

 a low dam of small boulders and heaps of coral shingle ; behind these, sand 



1 Mem. Mus. Corap. Zool., Vol. XXVIIL Rangiroa, Pis. 11, 12, fig. 2; Tikei, PI. 40, fig. 2; 

 Makemo, PI. 63, fig. 2 ; Funafuti, PI. 136, fig. 2; Taritari, PI. 158, fig. 2. 



