134 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



different times, visits were made to other districts little known 

 to Europeans, for the purpose of surveying and mapping out 

 those districts. In this way much general knowledge was 

 obtained of the people and natural history of the respective 

 districts; in all, no fewer than twelve tribes were visited, 

 some on the central plateau, others occupying the great forest, 

 and the remainder along the eastern seaboard. 



It is my purpose to place before you a general description 

 of what we saw, in order to give you an idea of much that is 

 peculiar in the zoology of Madagascar. 



This island, which has up to this time excited but little 

 interest, and that only amongst the few who were engaged in 

 the work of Christian missions, is about 1000 miles in length, 

 250 miles in average breadth, situated a little over 200 miles 

 from the nearest part of the African continent. It is a little 

 larger than Great Britain and Ireland, and is the third largest 

 island of the world. Situated for the most part within the 

 Southern Tropics, it possesses a rare combination of tropical 

 and temperate climes ; this is not, however, so much owing to 

 its geographical position, as to its physical configuration. 



The centre of the island consists of a high plateau, nearly 

 5000 feet above sea-level. This plateau is a bare and open 

 country of undulating pasture land, occupied by the provinces 

 Imerina, Betsileo, and the Bara land. 



Surrounding this plateau is a broad belt of forest, which 

 covers the hill-sides down to the lower lands which lie around 

 the coast. 



The climate of this central plateau is temperate, not unlike 

 that of the south of Europe ; that of the lowlands is tropical, 

 and as may be expected, there is a wide range of the fauna 

 and flora of the country. The eastern coast line is without 

 much interest, as it is almost a straight line, without bay 

 or inlet of any kind, a bare dreary line of sand, with the 

 white breakers on the one side, and the green strip of filao 

 {Casuarinus inadagascarieiisis) trees on the other. There are 

 no harbours, no roadsteads, a break or two in the coral reef 

 being the only shelter for shipping. There is nothing beauti- 

 ful, nothing grand, nothing picturesque. 



Ascending the sand downs, or passing thruugli the very 



