Account of the Maldives 17 Feb 1837
The Maldives, that
The natives observe the atolls to be wasting
away; in some the cocoanut trees are standing
in the water ; in another the black soil of the
island is discernible at low water thirty feet from
the beach ; the south-east side of an island in
Phaidee Pholo Atoll is entirely gone, but is
marked by a banyan tree in the water. They
say that some islands have disappeared entirely
and instance near the island Wardoo a rocky
shoal, which (they say) was once an island in
Atoll-Milla-Dou. Some of the outer edges of
the islands have fallen into the sea, which is
fathomless in those parts. It is, however,
acknowledged that reefs, have arisen from the
water and gradually formed islands ; and the in-
habitants of Male remember the outer edge of a
circular reef in their harbour to have had two
fathoms in the shoalest part, which is now dry at
