ANIMAL LIFE IN MADAGASCAR. 739 



desolate solitudes to the west of Imcrina, where there are immense 

 tracts that no one has trodden. In one part, Nature displays her 

 boundless riches, where the native can live without working, and civ- 

 ilized man procure the enjoyments of material life; in another, the 

 ungrateful land scarcely yields any food ; the rocks are sterile, the 

 soil is bare, and a stream of water to render the existence of man or 

 beast possible, is not to be found. 



Climbing with difficulty the high, abrupt downs, the pathway has 

 to be opened through thorny bushes, and plains stretch out at the 

 summit ; not a tree or shrub is to be seen ; desolate, uninhabitable, 

 and depressing, as the deserts of Egyj^t and Arabia. After a long 

 march through the sand, a new scene opens ; the nopal is now found 

 growing a sure index to the abode of man. These plants, upon which 

 the cochineal insect chiefly lives, are natives of America, but have 

 long been naturalized in Africa and the south of Europe; the Arabs 

 no doubt introduced them into Madagascar. Wherever a country is 

 unwatered by streams, they are an invaluable resource for the inhab- 

 itants. Here, every family possesses its plantations of nopals, and 

 gathers the fruit in a peculiar manner. With the point of their lances, 

 they adroitly detach them, thus avoiding their redoubtable thorns; 

 and roll them in the sand to get rid of the silky covering which in- 

 closes these spikes, afterward peeling them with the iron point of the 

 dart. They appease hunger, assuage thirst, and permit the poor 

 people to live in places where, for weeks together, water is not seen. 



In these solitudes, where the forests are immense, animal life can 

 multiply without fear of man, and yet the fauna of Madagascar offer 

 some singular featiires. The traveler can pass along without fear of 

 the lions, leopards, and panthers of Asia and Africa ; neither do zebras 

 and quaggas gallop over the plains. In other countries, wherever 

 the climate is hot enough, monkeys enliven the woods ; here, not a 

 single species is to be found. The horse and the ass are unknown ; 

 and, what is still more extraordinary, ruminants, such as stags and 

 antelopes, are absent. It is true that there are large herds of cattle, 

 which constitute the great riches of the Malagaches, as the natives of 

 Madagascar are called, but they have been imported probably from 

 the southern part of Asia. This species is remarkable from its boss 

 or lump of fat on the back, and is strikingly beautiful when seen in 

 large herds wandering over the plains. The sheep, too, are peculiar, 

 from their enormous tails, which consist of a mass of fat a common 

 feature in those belouQ-ing to the African Continent. Goats are com- 

 mon, as well as wild-pigs, which ravage the plantations; but these 

 are supposed to have all escaped from vessels, and not to be indige- 

 nous to the island. 



The monkeys of other lands are, however, replaced by the lemurs 

 graceful little creatures of many difffrent varieties. There is a great 

 resemblance in their attitude and manner of life to the ape, so that 



