50 
ATOLLS. 
Ch. I. 
seven on the outside. It is scarcely possible to attri- 
bute this difference to any other cause than the some- 
what different action of the sea on the two sides, which 
would ensue from the mutual protection afforded by 
the two rows of atolls. I may here remark that in 
most cases, the conditions favourable to the greater 
accumulation of fragments 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 reefs of the southern 
atolls are 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 
Nillandoo atoll, the natives say that three of the islets 
were formerly larger : in North Nillandoo there is one 
