EXTENT OF THE ISLAND 19 



island, and to realise how large a country it is. Take a fair- 

 sized map of Madagascar, and we see that it rises like some huge 

 sea-monster from the waters of the Indian Ocean ; or, to use 

 another comparison, how its outline is very like the sole the 

 left-hand one of a human foot. As we usually look at the 

 island in connection with a map of Africa, it appears as a mere 

 appendage to the great " Dark Continent " ; and it is difficult to 

 believe that it is really a thousand miles long, and more than 

 three hundred miles broad, with an area of two hundred and 

 thirty thousand square miles, thus exceeding that of France, 

 Belgium and Holland all put together. 2 Before the year 1871 

 all maps of Madagascar, as regards its interior, were pure guess- 

 work. A great backbone of mountains was shown, with 

 branches on either side, like a huge centipede. But it is now 

 clear that, instead of these fancy pictures, there is an extensive 

 elevated region occupying about two-thirds of the island to the 

 east and north, leaving a wide stretch of low country to the 

 west and south ; and as the watershed is much nearer the east 

 than the west of the island, almost all the chief rivers flow, 

 not into the Indian Ocean, but into the Mozambique Channel. 

 When we add that a belt of dense forest runs all along the east 

 side of Madagascar, and is continued, with many breaks, along 

 the western side, and that scores of extinct volcanoes are found 

 in several districts of the interior, we shall have said all that is 

 necessary at present as to the physical geography. Many more 

 details of this, as well as of the geology, will come under our 

 notice as we travel through the country in various directions. 



1 Histoire Physique, Naturelle et Politique de Madagascar, 

 publiee par Alfred Grandidier, Paris, a 1'Imprimerie Nationale ; 

 in fifty -two volumes, quarto. 



2 1 have often been astonished and amused by the notions 

 some English people have about Madagascar. One gentleman 

 asked me if it was not somewhere in Russia ! and a very 

 intelligent lady once said to me : " I suppose it is about as large 

 as the Isle of Wight ! " 



