64 DR. C. MELLER’ S JOURNAL 
Tamatave for exportation. Small ebony is found here; but 1t is 
from woods more to the north-westward that the best supplies of 
ebony, teak, and other woods are obtained. 
In the shady and moist parts of the woods I found several 
plants with variegated leaves—a Coleus with bright pink mark- 
ings along the midrib and veins, and a Soner?la with silvery intra- 
marginal markings, another with white spots in row, another 
with pink dottings and lines. There were four herbs in these 
woods with beautiful leaves of variegated tints, looking like 
“ sports.” 
A fine Calanthe, with a spike as long as the finest Angrecum, 
is found in the woods north-east of Tamatave. 
Having passed the thickest of the woeds, a long stretch of hills 
follows. The soil is still of yellow clay, in many parts bearing 
evidence of containing iron; it is studded with masses of black 
basaltic rock. On one of these hills a view is obtained of the sea, 
distant some 30 miles. It is called “the weeping-place of the 
Hovas,” because in times past, when slaves or offenders were 
brought down from the capital to be sold at the coast for exporta- 
tion, it was from the summit of this hill that they saw the sea for 
the first time, and their native land for the last, the Hova coun- 
try proper ceasing about 70 miles south of the capital. 
The Rofia Palm continues in great abundance; and the hill. 
sides are covered with Citron-trees and the Composite bush be- 
fore mentioned. . 
On the seventh day after leaving the coast we reached high 
table-land—a plain about 8 miles broad, said to extend in a north- 
west direction between 30 and 40 miles; it is bounded on the 
west by a ridge of mountains running north and south. There 
are several marshes and little lakes in the hollows, and much wild 
fowl. The grass is abundant, but coarse. Having passed the 
plain, the largest river crossed during the journey is met with : 
this is the Mangoro, about 90 yards wide, with a current equal to 
about two knots. Thirty miles below the part we crossed, it forms 
fine cataracts. It flows into the sea about 150 miles south of 
Tamatave. After crossing the river, more hills have to be ascended, 
the surface of which is composed of yellow clay; but a landslip 
near the river exposed three strata below this,—1st, a red clay, 
mixed with shining particles of what appeared like sedimentary 
sandstone; 2ndly, beneath this a red earth like lateritious de- 
tritus; and 3rdly, below these, and penetrating through them, 
lava-like honeycombed masses. 
