INDIA — MADAGASCAR — AFRICA. 283 



same conditions ; and, in a less degree, the further penin- 

 sula of India. But of this last considerable portions are 

 mountainous, well watered with great rivers, and covered 

 with forests ; all circumstances favourable to natural his- 

 tory. The jealousy of the native governments has tended 

 to shut up these regions from Euroj^eans, and we may 

 reasonably expect that important discoveries may yet re- 

 main in the immense intertropical countries of Cochin 

 China, Cambodia, Siam, Laos, and Burmah ; countries 

 where the elei^hant attains his most colossal dimensions, 

 where the two-horned rhinoceros roams the jungle, and 

 where the camphor and the gutta-percha grow. 



Madagascar is another land of promise. Here, too, 

 mountain and forest prevail ; situation is favourable ; and 

 we know almost nothing of the interior. It appears to 

 be remarkably destitute of the greater Mammalia, but Mr 

 Ellis's late researches shew how rich it is in strano-e forms 

 of vegetation ; and doubtless it wiU prove to be the home 

 of many unknown birds, reptiles, and insects. 



Africa is the land of wild beasts. The ofrandest forms 



produce so little for the collector. The worst collecting-ground in 

 England would produce ten times as many species of beetles as can be 

 found here ; and even our common Englisii butterflies are finer and 

 more numerous than those of Ampanam in the present dry season. A 

 walk of several hours with my net will produce, perhaps, two or three 

 species of Chrysomela, and Coccinella, and a Cicindela, and two or three 

 Hemiptera and flies; and every day the same species will occur. In 

 an uncultivated district which I have visited, in the south part of the 

 island, I did indeed find insects rather more numerous, but two months' 

 assiduous collecting have only produced me eight species of Coleoptera. 

 Why, there is not a spot in England where the same number could not 

 be obtained in a few days in spring." — Zoologist, p. 5415. 



