(_Journ.
Asiat.Soc.Beng_.

vol.v.p.

239.) Besides, I fancy that in the majority of atolls and coral islands the quantity of rain which so small an area is calculated to intercept would be insufficient of itself to account for the extraordinary abundance of fresh water daily drawn from the wells.

For instance, the superficial extent of each of the Laccadives is but two or three square miles, the surface soil resting on a crust of coral, beneath which is a stratum of sand; and yet on reaching the latter, fresh water flows in such profusion, that wells and large tanks for soaking coco-nut fibre are formed in any place by merely "breaking through the crust and taking out the sand."-- _Madras Journal_, vol.xiv.It is curious that the abundant supply of water in these wells should have attracted the attention of the early navigators, and Cosmas Indicoplenstes, writing in the sixth century, speaks of the numerous small islands off the coast of Taprobane, with abundance of fresh water and coco-nut palms, although these islands rest on a bed of sand.
(_Cosmas Ind_.ed.Thevenot, vol.i.p.

3, 20).