A TKIP TO MADAGASCAR, THE COUNTRY OF BERYLS.* 



By A. Lacroix, 

 Memhre de V Instilut de France. 



Madagascar, the land long full of mystery and of fabulous legends, 

 has ever since it was opened up to the world been noted for its mineral 

 riches. 



The second Frenchman who landed on the island, Capt. Jean 

 Fonteneau, called Alphonse le Saintongeois, declared that he found 

 precious stones there in 1547.^ One hundred years later, in 1658, 

 Flacourt^ speaks of topazes, aquamarines, emeralds, rubies, and 

 sapphires, and shows on his map the places where one could find 

 those marvelous masses of rock cr3^stal, limpid as the purest water, 

 which have ever since been sought after for ornamentation and for 

 optical use.* Up to the middle of the last century every traveler 

 who wrote about the "Grand He" did not fail to note the great 

 abundance of gems there,^ although many attempts at their practical 

 utilization, made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by 

 the French East India Co., had lamentably failed. 



When the period of scientific exploration commenced, some fear- 

 less pioneers, in the front rank of whom I would place our colleague, 

 M. Alfred Grandidier, quickl}' made known the princi]:)al features, 

 so peculiar, of its flora and fauna, but all that concerned its miner- 

 alogy was hardl37- glanced at, for a reason that I will explain. In 

 order to protect its mineral resources the Government of Madagascar 

 had instituted a system as ingenious as it was efficient. One penalty 

 only — and that was death — stopped all mineral research by for- 



1 Lecture at the annual meeting of the Cinq Academies de I'Institut de France (Oct. 25, 1912). Translated 

 by permission from I.a G(5ographie. Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Paris, Nov. 15, 1912. 



» Voyages adventureux du capitaine .Tean-Alphonse-le-Saintongcois, Paris, 1559 (reprinted in Coll. cuvr. 

 anc. Madag. by A. and G. Grandidier, vol. 1, pp. 92-95). 



' Histoire de la Grande Isle de Madagascar, ParLs, 1658. 



* This mineral was found in the rivers of the eastern coast, to the north of the Bay of Antongil and notably 

 In the region of Vohemar. I have specified (Comptes Bendus de 1' Acad, des Sciences, Paris, vol. 155, 1912, 

 p. 491) the conditions under which this mineral abounds on the high plateaus. The beds actually worked 

 in place arc pockets of crystals in the metamorphosed quartzites. 



' Notably: (T)u Bois) Les voyages faits par Ic sieur D. B. aux ile,s Dauphine ou Madagascar et Bourbon 

 ou Mascarenne, fe annees 1669-70, 71 et 72, Paris, 1674, 151 . Souchu de Ilennefort, Histoire dcs Indes orlon- 

 talcs, Leide, 1688, 173. De la Haye et Caron, Journal du voyage des Grandes Indes, Paris, 1688. 



371 



