FLORA OF MADAGASCAR. 249 
from north to south, almost, if not entirely, without a break, and 
which, if what is frequently stated be true, continues round the 
island, forming a complete, or almost complete, belt some distance 
from the sea. Whether the forest does thus actually encircle 
the island is somewhat questionable. There can, however, be no 
doubt that in the western part of Madagascar there are forests, 
mostly, I believe, narrow, which run for long distances in a nor- 
therly and southerly direction, but how far these are continuous 
is not yet known. In regard to the large eastern forest, it attains 
its greatest dimensions in the north-east part of the country. 
Here it reaches, in many places, from the mountains of the interior 
right down to the sea, and is probably 60 (in North Antsihanaka 
perhaps 80) miles in width. If we take its average width on the 
eastern side of the island at 30 miles and its length at 800, we 
get an area of 24,000 square miles of forest-clad country, not 
reckoning the innumerable patches of wood on the lower slopes. 
If we include these, probably two fifths, if not one half, of the 
eastern side of the island is clothed with trees. In the whole of 
Madagascar, if one may be allowed to make a rough estimate, 
there will not unlikely be an area of 30,000 square miles of forest- 
covered country ; and if we reckon the area of the island at 
228,000 square miles, about one eighth part of it may be said 
to be so covered. 
It is grievous to relate, however, that the forests of Madagascar 
are being destroyed in the most ruthless and wholesale manner by 
the natives. Every year thousands of acres of country are cleared, 
the trees being burned to the ground, and that for no other purpose 
than to provide ashes as manure for a mere handful or two of 
beans, or a few cobs of Indian corn, or a little rice to be grown 
in the clearing. Moreover, all the towns and villages with Hova 
Governors are surrounded by palisades, frequently in a double 
series, made of the trunks of young trees, six or eight inches in 
diameter, fixed in the ground and placed in contact with each 
other. I once counted the trees that had been thus used in a 
certain village, and found that there were about 10,000. These 
trees, moreover, in many of these places are renewed every eight or 
ten years. When we remember the great number of villages thus 
provided with these palisades, we see that many hundreds of 
thousands of trees must be thus foolishly destroyed within a 
comparatively few years! Even where stone and lime or other 
suitable materials are abundant and close at hand, the people 
