334 Mr. E. Newton's Second Visit to Madagascar. 



miles, in the hopes of finding a certain patch of forest which we 

 were led to believe abounded with all living creatures that delight 

 the eyes of a naturalist. The river winds between small hills, 

 increasing in size as we get further to the south-west. Not long 

 since they have been all clothed with forest, but the trees have 

 been cut down and burnt for'the sake of planting rice ; not that 

 the increased consumption of that article has been the motive, 

 but the natives find that, after three or four crops on the same 

 ground, the yield diminishes, and so the forest is sacrificed to 

 obtain fresh ground. At the present time the country is 

 covered with tall, rank grass, eight or ten feet high, and a species 

 of Hedychium, through which it is exceedingly hard work to force 

 a passage. Occasionally a small patch of forest has been left 

 standing, but to no great extent — probably some spot which 

 superstition forbids the natives to disturb. Small villages perched 

 on the tops of hills occur every mile or so ; and the people appear 

 very glad to see us, bringing us presents of fowls and rice, but 

 not able to understand our object in coming up their river. A 

 good few canoes laden with rice meet us, and occasionally we 

 overtake one laden with that curse of the country, rum. For 

 two days we paddled on, the stream getting stronger and 

 narrower ; the second day we passed about eight rapids, at each 

 of which nearly all hands had to get out and drag the canoes up, 

 making our progress very slow. At last, just as it was getting 

 dark on the second day, we came to a much larger rapid, which 

 would have taken some hours to ascend ; and so here we resolved 

 to stop, having got very little for our pains. The next morning, 

 being unable to find any forest worth mentioning, and not 

 having a sufficient number of men to make a journey on foot, 

 we were compelled to paddle back to Soamandrikazay, an opera- 

 tion our men found much easier than going up the stream. 

 Notwithstanding this, they managed to capsize us in descending 

 a rapid, and washed everything but guns, powder-horns, and 

 shot-pouches out of the canoes. 



A few days after, Mr. Magee and I went up the left fork, 

 or rather the main river, Hivondrona; and having proceeded 

 to the small village of Ampasimaventy (which was as far as we 

 could by canoe), we walked on, for about three hours, to a place 



