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suddenly upon a pond on the top of one of the nume- 

 rous undulating hills call Vanetry, occurring through- 

 out the whole of Central Madagascar. I saw at once 

 that the depression in which the pond was situated 

 was a crater. It had a well rounded rim, a part of 

 which was worn away. I found too that the hill was 

 immediately above that part of the road where we had 

 seen the apparently volcanic slag and scoriee... If this 

 be an extinct volcano — and there is no doubt of it in 

 my mind, — it has been but a small one, and active 

 apparently for only a short period, as the matter 

 ejected has been insufficient to form a cone. The 

 crater is yet very perfect in shape, the volcano pro- 

 bably being of comparatively recent origin, geologi- 

 cally speaking, having suffered little from denudation. . . 

 Slag and scorise were here embedded in the soil some 

 of which had fallen out on the road. The matter 

 ejected from this crater, as I interpret it, had become 

 to some extent decomposed and coated with soil, but 

 the harder and more enduring substance had remained 

 as witnesses of former volcanic activity. Compared 

 with some of the extinct volcanoes about Betafo, this 

 is one of very small dimensions, and from a distance 

 cannot be distinguished from the surrounding hill. 

 The volcano is about an hour or an hour and a half 

 distance from Ambohidratrimo on the road to Anta- 

 nanarivo. The fossils alluded to above are found 

 in some shale, at the side of the channel of a small 

 stream, which the natives had cut on the margin of 



