Feb. 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
541 
close together and separated by gaps of not 
more than tlnee-quarters of a mile to a mile. 
This makes the 
TOLLS OF THE MALDIVES SUCH AN INTEREST- 
ING SUBJECT 
for those interested in coral reets, for we found 
there the most simple and primitive conditions for 
the formation of Atolls whicli are found any- 
where except in some parts of the Yucatan plateau 
in the West Indies, There are two or three 
small Atolls similar to those of the Maldives but 
no where do we iind such an immense number 
of diminutive Atolls in all stages of growth, from 
a mere bank rising to a few feet above the plateau, 
to banks within five or six fatiioms from the 
surface, or to banks which have just reached the 
surface and on which sandbanks or islets are be- 
ginning to form, so that it is compaiatively 
simple to tra^e the whole development of these 
Atolls from the time they are bank until they 
form the Atoll as we understand it. One of tli 
GREAT REASONS OF OUR SUCCESS 
in examining the Maldives ha^been that the Charts 
published more than 70 years ago are as accurate to 
day as they were then, and we were able to 
navigate through the intricacies of all the islands 
with the greatest confidence. The only changes 
we noticed were changes such as the wasliing 
away of banks or the formadon of banks since 
the charts were published ; but these are chanwes 
without any special importance and it is 
CERTAINLY ONE OF THE MOST CREDITABLE PIECES 
OF SURVEY 
with which lam acquainted, as the survey must 
have been carried out under more difficult con- 
ditions than those under which a similar survey 
would be made at the present day. The con- 
ditions which exist to modify the atolls are very 
slight. The North Fast and South-West mon- 
soons do not blow with anything like the violence 
with which the " tra des" blow in the Pacific 
where we found on the banks oi the atolls an 
enormous swell, pounding everything to pieces and 
throwing up large blocks of Coral on the reef 
plateaux. In the Maldives the sea which is the 
result of the monsoons is comparatively of little 
strength compared to that of the Pacific swell. 
The 
MALDIVES ARE BY FAR THE MOST INTERESTING 
GROUP OF COBAL REKFS 
which I have visited as in less than fifty miles of 
any part of the Maldives one can see more atolls 
than there are in the rest of the world." 
Professor Dr. Agassiz, who was accompanied 
by his son, Dr. Woodworth and Mr. Biglow, as' 
assistants, received the greatest courtesy and kind- 
ness at the hands of the Sultan who provided him 
with a circular letter to the Chiefs requesting that 
they should give all assistance possible to the 
party. His Majesty also presented the Professor 
with an interesting collection of Maldivian curios 
before they left Male. Of Captain Pigott, who 
commanded the " Amra," Protesscr Dr. Agassiz 
speaks in the Uighest terms for the valuable assis- 
tance rendered by him. 
The party, ftfter a week's rest in Colombo, re- 
turned to America, 
SHIKAR AND TRAVEL. 
• A NIGHT'S WATCH. 
I could not persuade the Pakrind tiger to kill 
any of my 'ties np, ' though six appetizing baits had 
been for some days fastened in the most likely places 
it might be expected to pass by. But its beat was 
a large one, which contained much uadistutbed 
jungle, where apparently as it had not killed village 
cattle for some weeks, it v^as able to obtain as much 
food as it needed. There was no water inside the 
jungle, but roughly Bpeaking, at the four corners 
of the area which was 14 miles jlong by 10 miles 
wide, water was to be found. At three of the corners 
there were small nearly dried-up village tanks, and 
at the fourth which was in the hills was a water- 
bole fed by a small spring (one of those over which 
a native shUcari loves to sit and shoot unsuspecting 
does and fawns as they come to drink on a moonlight 
night). My only chance of a shot at the tiger 
seemed to be to sit over this hole ; it was a very 
remote chance certainly, but there were signs that 
the tiger had been in the neighbourhood some days 
before, and as I had to leave on the following 
day, I felt that 1 could not go away without having 
tried every means to bring it to bag. In the pre- 
vious year 1 had tried for it, but had not been able 
to obtain a shot, though it had deigned to kill one 
of my baits. A mouth or two before I tried, it 
had been fired at, and I think slightly wounded 
by an ofScer of a native regiment who had left 
the wing he was accompanying on their march 9n 
relief along the trunk road some 10 miles away to 
try for the Pakrind tiger. Baits, beasts and bullets 
were therefore not new things to it when I arrived 
upon the scene, and it was clever enough to steer 
clear of all three. 
The water hole was, as I have said, in the 
hills. All around the jungle had been burnt and 
there was little covert between it and the thick 
grass and tree jungle in which the tiger usually 
lived, but it was approached by numerous gorf^es 
and ravines and was just the place to which game 
might be expected to come at night. 
About 3 o'clock I left my camp having sent men 
on before me with a native eharpoy which they were 
to fasten up over the water in the most convenient 
tree, and about 6 o'clock I reached the place. The 
water was not very abundant, and what there was, 
was very black and muddy, and looked most un- 
inviting ; but 1 suppose it contained some saline 
properties which are always such an attraction to 
game. Some twenty yards away from the main 
water-hole there was a little in a hole in the bed 
of a ravine ; this, was much cleaner-looking, but 
it did not seem to be resorted to by game so much 
as the mudhole around which were innumerable 
tracks varying in size from those of the little four' 
horned antelope to the large but old impriut of a 
big bull-buffalo, and some rather more recent marks 
of bison. There were no quite recent tiger tracks, 
but bear and leopard had visited the water on the 
previous night, and I hoped that even if the tiger 
disappointed me I might get a shot at one of the 
two latter animals. My machan, which was placed 
on a tree between the two water-holes, needed some 
additional screening before I considered it quite 
hidden, and it was nearly dark before I was settled 
in it. The moon which did not top the hills behind 
me until between 8 and 9 o'clock, was just past 
the full, but though the afternoon and evening 
had been cloudless, the night was not to be so. 
It might certainly have been a much darker night 
than it was, but every now and then a thick black 
cloud obscured the moon, and the water fifteen yards 
away, was not visible. I do not know who my 
first visitors were. About half an hour before the 
moon rose I heard some animals at the water lap- 
ping. They seemed smallish and may have been 
wild dogs, but they made no sounds save the lap^ 
