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The highest level anywhere reached by the forest 

 is 6,000 ft. (about equal the height of Piton des Neiges 

 of Reunion) There are abundant marks of recent 

 volcanic actions, but there are now no active volcanoes 

 left in Madagascar, though they occur to the West of 

 it in the Comoro group, and to the Bast of it in Bour- 

 bon. In the Southern portion of the Island there is 

 some fine mountain scenery ; in the Betsileo country 

 and in the Centre the Ankaratra, mountains rise to 

 the height of 9,600 ft., within a short distance of the 

 Capital, which itself stands at a height of 4,000 ft., 

 above sea level. This range consists of five or six 

 principal peaks arranged like a cross and in the clear 

 atmosphere which prevails in that part of the World, 

 it forms a conspicious object from a great distance. 

 The valleys, interspersed between there red clay moor- 

 lands are often wooded, and in some places there are 

 tracts of rich black alluvial soil, two of the prin- 

 cipal of which occur in the neighbourhood of the two 

 chief Cities of the interior, and are used for the culti- 

 vation of rice which in Madagascar is the " stafE of 

 life." The remaining | of the Island is occupied by 

 a country of typically tropical climate, consisting 

 mainly of extensive plains elevated not more than a 

 few hundred feet above sea-level. 



Of its Geology very little is known, but it is pro- 

 bably underlaid by sedimentary rocks of a much later 

 date than those of the interior. 



The fossils which have been discovered are Neoco^ 



