TRIP TO MADAGASCAR LACROIX. 375 



flue to men and to their industry. The ascent from the eastern side 

 to Tananarive is startling from this point of view. The canal from 

 Pangalanes permits crossmg the coastal zone, marshy and warm. 

 The arduous ascent of more than 1,500 meters^ of jagged rocks, whence 

 fall raging cascades in the midst of the humid luxuriance of a tropical 

 forest, leads to vast plateaus covered by the grassy steppe which is 

 prolonged, barren, and dry until the moment when the high hills of 

 Tananarive commence to carve themselves against the sky, coming 

 nearer little by little, then appearing in the midst of verdant rice 

 plantations with all the details of their red beauty. 



The means of transportation which permitted me to reach my 

 destination were not less varied. The slowness and the lack of 

 comfortable navigation through the canal on the plain made us better 

 appreciate the speed and elegance of the railroad — a bold undertaking, 

 which in less than 13 hours climbed over the high rounds of the titanic 

 trestle, leading to the neighborhood of Ocean by the side of the bat- 

 tered plateau on which, much farther still, the Malagasy capital stands. 

 It was by automobile that the 172 kilometers which separate Tanana- 

 rive from Antsirabe, my first center of exploration, were traversed 

 and I descended from a vehicle of the latest model only to mount a 

 "filanzane" (seat suspended between long poles). 



At the risk of being called an old retrograde academician, I dis- 

 tinctly state that between the automobile and the filanzane my 

 sympathy for the geologist goes straight to the latter. 



The journey from the capital to Antsirabe was like the cup of 

 Tantalus for me. Over this road, still new, we rolled along with dizzy 

 speed; before my eyes, accustomed by a month of the bush to the 

 monotony of the red earth which covers the greatest part of the 

 island, the rocky walls recently torn up by dynamite appeared like 

 flashes of lightnmg exposing to the sun their marvelous freshness. 

 Upon the slope some broad surfaces of granite, reflecting white or rose, 

 were loosened, magnificent, Avith innumerable dark spots, basic inclu- 

 sions, which I seek throughout the world that I may learn from them 

 the secret of the genesis of the rocks which inclose them; then, as in 

 a giant kaleidoscope, there succeeded some gneiss in many colored 

 strata, revealmg the complexity of their nature, some veins of every 

 variety. What more do I know ? 



Each turn of the wheel brings a new temptation. My hammer 

 burns my hands. But alas! deaf to my prayers, the conductor of the 

 infernal machine, bending over the steering wheel, slave to the hour, 

 refuses the slightest stop and we keep rolling on. 



With the filanzane these distractions are unknown. Nicely 

 perched on a little seat of cloth between tw^o long bars resting on the 



' The railroad attains the height of 1,520 meters between the stations of Ambatolaona and Manjakan^ 

 driana. 



