186 A CRUISE IN THE LACCADIVE SEA 



Almost in the same latitude with Cape Comorin, 

 which lies about 265 miles eastward, the little elliptical 

 ring of coral known as Minnikoy rises abruptly, out 

 of a sea that is 1200 fathoms deep, to a height of 

 about 1 5 feet above the level of the moving waters. 

 It stands almost midway between the Laccadives and 

 Maldives, belonging to the former group politically, 

 and to the latter group ethnologically, and perhaps 

 also geographically, seeing that the Investigator has 

 lately discovered traces of a submarine bank, carry- 

 ing between 1000 and iioo fathoms, in the Eight 

 Degree Channel, as the passage between the island 

 and the most northerly atoll of the Maldive Archi- 

 pelago is called. Its position is such that all the 

 ships trading to ports east of the Arabian Sea pass 

 close by it, and are only kept from running on to it 

 by its friendly lighthouse, whose revolving light is 

 visible at a distance of 19 miles. 



The island itself is a narrow crescent-shaped bank, 

 about 6 miles long and half a mile broad, piled on 

 the south-eastern arc of the atoll, the north-western 

 arc being a reef visible only at low-water as a broken 

 line of rocks. Its superficial geological structure, as 

 exposed in the pits dug for drinking-water, seems to 

 be very simple : beneath a thin and imperfect layer 

 of vegetable humus, there is fine coral sand ; a few 

 feet below this comes a compact and hardish crust 

 of fine conglomerate that looks like coarse oolitic lime- 



