CORAL-REEFS. 55 



channels into the lagoons are almost invariably situated on 

 the leeward or less exposed side of the reef, and the reef 

 itself is sometimes either wanting there, or is submerged. 

 A strictly analogous, but different fact, may be observed at 

 the Maldiva atolls — namely, that where two atolls stand in 

 front of each other, the breaches in the reef are the most 

 numerous on their near, and therefore less exposed, sides. 

 Thus on the near sides of Ari and the two Nillandoo atolls, 

 which face S. Male, Pbaleedoo, and Moloque atolls, there 

 are seventy-three deep-water channels, and only twenty-five 

 on their outer sides ; on the near side of the three latter 

 named atolls there are fifty-six openings, and only thirty- 

 seven on their outsides. It is scarcely possible to attribute 

 this difference to any other cause than the somewhat 

 different action of the sea on the two sides, which would 

 ensue from the protection afforded by the two rows of atolls 

 to each olher. I may here remark that in most cases, the 

 conditions favourable to the greater accumulation of frag- 

 ments on the reef and to its more perfect continuity on one 

 side of the atoll than on the other, have concurred, but 

 this has not been the case with the Maldivas ; for we have 

 seen that the islets are placed on the eastern or south- 

 eastern sides, whilst the breaches in the reef occur 

 indifferently on any side, where protected by an opposite 

 atoll. The reef being more continuous on the outer and 

 more exposed sides of those atolls which stand near each 

 other, accords with the fact, that the reef of the southern 

 atolls is more continuous than that of the northern ones ; 

 for the former, as I am informed by Capt. Moresby, are 

 more constantly exposed than the northern atolls to a heavy 

 surf. 



The date of the first formation of some of the islets in 

 this Archipelago is known to the inhabitants \ on the other 



