0 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 
leeward instead of to windward*, while Akati and its two little 
satellite islands, Bangaro and Tangaro, are inside a huge lagoon, 
formed by a separate barrier-reef.f Three of the atolls are 
mere open-reefs. The first of these is the Cherbaniani (called 
also the Beliapani) reef, situated at the extreme north-west 
corner of the Archipelago in Lon. 71® 55' B. and Lat. 12® 20' N., 
minutely described by Mr. Hume? as a long oval atoll, 6 miles in 
length by 2| miles across, the reef consisting of an almost unbroken 
line about 200 yards in width, just submerged at high-tide and more 
or less dry at low-water, with two narrow shallow channels through it 
on the eastern and one on the western side; in three places, at 
the extreme north, the extreme south, and about the middle of the 
eastern side are piled-up masses of coral debris forming islets even 
at high-water. There is no trace of vegetation on any of these tiny 
islets, the largest of which, that at the northern extremity, is about 
200 yards long and about 50 yards across, its highest point not 
being more than 7 feet above high-water. The lagoon within this 
reef carries from 3 to 3|- fathoms at its deepest portion, shallowing to 
the reef all round. 
This reef is apparently not included in Lieut. Wood’s list; § his 
No. 10 (Tatacum) may indeed refer either to this or to Pirmalla, but 
cannot include both, and probably indicates the latter. If, however, 
this should be what is meant by his Tatacum, then the statement that 
it produces coco-nuts made to him at Anderut, is incorrect. Im¬ 
mediately to the south of Cherbaniani in Lon. 7l°50'B.and Lat. 11°50 
N. lies the Cheriapani reef (Shereah of Wood’s list), called also the 
Byramgore reef, owing to the wreck there in 1827 of a Bombay 
vessel of that name. This is shown in the charts as completely 
submerged at high-water, but from what Mr. Hume was able to 
ascertain at Ameni regarding it, this appears to have several 
islets like those on the Cherbaniani reef. The statement of the 
islanders of Andei’ut to Lieut. Wood, that it produces coco-nuts and 
* Wood, “ Journ. of the Roy. Geogr. Soc.,” vol. vi., p. 30. 
t Hume, “ Stray Feathers,” vol. iv., p. 439f 
X “Stray Feathers,” vol. iv., p. 428, with map. 
$ “Jouru. Roy. Geogr. Soc.,” vol. vi., p. 30. 
306 
