A COMBINATION OF BEAUTY 71 



blue and dull gold in colour, grasshoppers with scarlet wings, 

 and the very spiders with gold and silver markings. Some 

 species of these latter were of great size ; we saw hundreds of 

 them in their large geometric webs stretching over the paths as 

 we came along. 



On Monday morning, 12th October, we left the village before 

 sunrise and immediately began the ascent of Angavo, which 

 rises from fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred feet above the 

 valley. It is an enormous mass of granite, capped with clay, 

 the summit being scarped and fortified with earthworks ; it is, 

 however, not a detached mountain rising from a plain on every 

 side, but rather a vast natural bastion or outwork of a higher 

 level of country. There was a gorgeous sunrise, which covered 

 the greater part of the sky with a crimson light, unlike anything 

 I had ever seen before. Then for another hour or two we were 

 passing through the upper belt of forest, here very narrow, 

 being only ten or twelve miles across, but as dense and as beauti- 

 ful as the lower and wider belt. And it was just as difficult 

 to travel through as the other forest, descending into the gorge 

 of the Mandraka river and then scaling the steep ascents. One 

 place especially, where we crossed the stream, was a perfect 

 combination of beauty rushing waters, luxuriant foliage of 

 fern and palm and bamboo and hundreds of large blue and 

 black papilio butterflies hovejing over the river. 



At eight o'clock we reached Ankeramadinika, a village close 

 to the last ascent of the forest, and waited for a few minutes 

 while my bearers bought manioc root at the little market. 

 The people crowded round me, bringing various articles of food 

 for sale sweet-potatoes, honeycomb, and wild raspberries. 

 We had now left behind us the forest region and were on the bare 

 open uplands of Imerina, the air being clear and keen. The 

 hills were less steep and more rounded, reminding me of some 

 parts of the English chalk downs, and there was hardly a tree 

 to be seen. In several places the granite or gneiss takes a dome- 

 like form ; and in others the same rock formed the highest points. 

 For many miles I could see them rising high over every other 

 hill ; one of these, on the southern side of a huge mountain 

 called Angavokely, was like a titanic castle ; another, which is 

 divided into three and called Telomirahavavy (" Three Sisters "), 

 was like a vast church. 



