482 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 1, 1902. 
knoll of any sovt julting up to indeterminate depths.* " 
After paying a second visit to the Jaffna district. 
I returned to the Maldives, having &eciired Sheikh 
.Teevunjee Noorbhai's steamer Ileafaee, Capt. Molony, 
for a short cruise. I took on board at Male Bloham- 
med Didi, Chief Vizier and uncle to the Sultan, Mafe- 
Ivilgefann, the religious head o£ the community, and 
Hassan Didi. third vizier, with their suites as well as 
a Said, descendant of the Prophet, who had a family 
in Addu. After di-charging some of our Male cargo 
we steamed south down the deep central basin of the 
group, coastings. Male and Koluniadulu atolls. We 
steamed into Haddnmati atoll on April 8th, and re- 
lieved Mr. For»ter Oooper, who joined us. After trans- 
ferring the collections, instruments and nets, we sent 
the schooner back under the native mate to Male, and 
at once sailed on to Suvadiva atoll, which we entered 
by the north-east passage on the morning of the 9th. 
This atoll lies between tbe equator and lat. 1"N. ; it 
is separated from the central group by the " One 
and a half Degree Channel," 55 miles in breadth, 
It has a well-defined rim with passages at intervals, 
and is about 34 miles long by a little less in breadth; 
Its lagoon has a maximum depth of 50 fathoms. As 
Addu atoll was to be our turning point, we new spent 
only two days in Suvadiva, dredging and sounding 
along the east side of the lagoon. We anchored 
with banked lires for two nights at Is'ilandu and 
Gaddu, and 1 further, leaving the dredging to my 
companion; visited Wiligili and Kondai. 
Aadu is a tmall atolT, 10 miles long by 6 broad, 
lying about lat. 0°4:0'S. Its i-eef is perfect except 
for two small passages to the north and two larger 
ones to the south. The lagoon has a maximum depth 
of 136 fathoms ; it is fairly open in the centre, but 
against the encircling reefs has a perfect maze of 
coral heads, arising from 7 to 10 fathoms. It is notice- 
able that the greater part of the circumference of 
the atoll is surrounded by land. The "Equatorial 
Channel," 18 miles across, separates Addu and Suva- 
diva. In its centre is the island of Fua Mulaku, said 
to have a deep kuli (lake) in its midst ; it is two miles 
long by one broad, and has a firingiug reef only. 
On our passage to Addu, and subsequently on our 
return journey, we tried to visit it, but the heavy 
sea made both anchoring and landing quite impossible. 
We remained at Addu until April 15, examining the 
reefs and islands, in both of which there have been 
great changes since Moresby's survey. We also 
checked the soundings on the chart, and took 14 
hauls of the dredge in the lagoon and on the outer 
s opes. In one of the latter from 40 fathoms we 
obtained a large quantity of Ediouora coiridea with 
almost colourless corallum. The vegetation of 
the islands was far more luxuriant than any we saw 
in other parts of the Maldives, but the land fauna 
was very scanty as compared with Hulule. The animal 
life of the encircling reefs seemed to be both poorer 
and less varied than to the north ; the growth of fixed 
forms of life in the lagoou was, however, decidedly 
lavish. 
Revisiting Suvadiva on our return journey, we 
dredp'ed and sounded within the lagoon along the south 
and west sides, anchoring for three nights at Gaddu, 
Nadalle and Havara Tinaiiu, bejond which I did not 
land anywhere. On April 19th we entered Koluma- 
dulu, having in the morning coasted along the east 
of Haddumati. We dredged the passage, as we entered 
and dropped anchor at Buruni, at once going on 
shore. 
On April 20 we ran a line of sounding across to S. 
>jilandu, an atoll somewhat similar to Male. We 
twice traversed the lagoon, anchoring that night at 
llimbLidu. Six dredgings were taken in 19 to 35 
fathoms; they proved to be in their result the richest 
series that were obtained in the whole archipelago, 
* ii, is scarcely necessary to point to the great im- 
portance of this fact, as bearing on the qneiition of the 
formaiji'-'U of the atoila and vmU of the Maldives, 
although I do not think we found any forms of which 
we had not previously preserved specimens- 
On April 21 we sounded the chanm^l across to N, 
Nilandu atoll, which we crossed. We then ran a 
line of soundings to Wattaru atoll across the central 
basin, wliieh hag very generally been supposed to 
owe its origin to the lagoon of a much laiger atoll, 
now completely lost. We further sounded the channel 
between Mulaku and Wattaru atolls, anchoring for 
the night off Bakidu in Felidu atoll. On Apnl 22ud 
we sounded the channel between Felidu and Wattaru 
atolls, and then ran a second line across to the 
western chain, about 15 miles north of the first. 
We sounded the channel between N. Nilandu and 
Ari atolls, continuing northwards sounding at inter- 
vals to ilahiaJdu in the latter atoll, where wo 
dropped anchor. On April 23rd we made a straight 
course for Aiaie, putting down our third line of 
soundings across th<; central basin. We ran our line oat 
along the channel between N. and S. Male atolls, 
obtaining finally a depth of 10U5 fd,thom8. two miles 
S. W. J S<f. of the S. Point of the reef of Hulule 
faro. That night we anchored off Male and, after 
taking our collections on board, bade good-bye to tbe 
Maldives on April 25, 1900. 
The collections may be allowed to speak for 
themselves in the subsequent parts of this publica- 
tion. A word is necessary as to the dredguigs, of 
which 273 were recorded ia the mildives. They were 
into ded to ascertain the character of the bottom 
within the atolls as v/ell as its f luna in every 
position, in which the phy.sical coudilions might 
vary. Naturally a considerable number were under 
these circumstances absolutely barren, but all served 
tLeir purpose. Seven dredges were used, both 
rectangular and tiiingular, of Naples or Plymouth 
models, as well as an otter and three beam trawls of 'A, 
4^ and G feet. The latter were made to my own design, 
and adaptation of Prof. Agassiz' model ; they were 
always thrown overboard, when we were at anchor, 
about one f ithom of rope being allowed beyond the 
depth, if the bottom was fairly level. For sounding 
froai the schooner and small boats, besides regular 
lead lines, we used loosely spun cod-fishing line, as re- 
commended by Mr. J Y Buchanan. Ou tbe steamer we 
had an old Liucas deep-sea machine, which was lent 
us by the Admiralty, Mr. Lucas kindly providing 
about 3,0i)0 fathoms of wire. Of leads we employed 
the Telegraphic Construction and Maintenance Com- 
pany's snapper, and valved leads of the Admiralty 
pattern. Otner apparatus and instruments will be 
referred to where necessary in the account of the work 
of the expedition. J. Stanley Gardiner*. 
[Note. The collections of pla ts have been pre- 
sented to the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya, 
Ceylon. A full report on ihem will be shortly pub- 
lished in the "Journal of the Gardens" by Mr. J 
C VVaiid, the Director.— J. S. G.l 
PEARLING 
IN 
By 
TORRES 
R. F. T. 
STRAITS, 
The average person in the Southern States seems 
to comprehend very little abor.t that portion of the 
Commonwealth known as fhursdav Island, and to 
know next to nothing about the industry wh eh gives 
employment to fully 3,000 coloured men and 300 or 
so of whites who make their home there. 
People in Sydney have asked roe, " How many 
pearls does a diver bring up in a day ? " They 
imagine that the bottom of the ocean is strewn with 
pearls, and are quite surprised when told that pearls 
are only " perks," and that the pe.irl-fisher is quite 
content to gather up his tons of shell and chance 
to luck to once in a while get ai pearl. 
* This account has been checked by Mv. L A 
Borradaile and Mr Forster Cooper, 
