50 ATOLLS. Ch. I. 



more continuous than those of the northern ones, for 

 the former, as I am informed by Captain Moresby, are 

 more constantly exposed to a heavy surf than are the 

 northern atolls. 



The date of the first formation of some of the islets 

 in this Archipelago is known to the inhabitants ; on the 

 other hand, several islets, and even some of those which 

 are believed to be very old, are now fast wearing away. 

 The work of destruction has, in some instances, been 

 completed in ten years. Captain Moresby found on one 

 water-washed reef the marks of wells and graves, which 

 Were excavated when it supported an islet. In South 

 Mllandoo atoll, the natives say that three of the islets 

 Were formerly larger : in North Mllandoo there is one 

 now being washed away ; and in this latter atoll Lieut. 

 Prentice found a reef, about six hundred yards in 

 diameter, which the natives positively affirmed was 

 lately an island covered with cocoa-nut trees. It is now 

 only partially dry at low-water spring tides, and is (in 

 Lieut. Prentice's words) 'entirely covered with live 

 coral and madrepore.' In the northern part, also, of 

 the Maldiva Archipelago and in the Chagos group, it is 

 known that some of the islets are disappearing. The 

 natives attribute these effects to variations in the 

 currents of the sea. For my own part I cannot avoid 

 suspecting, that there must be some further cause, which 

 gives rise to such a cycle of change in the action of the 

 currents of the great and open ocean. 



Several of the atolls in this Archipelago are so 

 related to each other in form and position, that at the 







