CHAPTER X 



AT THE FOREST SANATORIUM 



BY the kind concern of two of the missionary societies 

 working in Madagascar for the comfort and health of 

 their representatives, who live in Imerina, two sana- 

 toriums have been provided for them away from the capital. 

 One of these is at Ambatovory, about fifteen miles distant to 

 the east, and close to a patch of old forest still left among the 

 surrounding somewhat bare country ; the other is at Ankera- 

 madinika, at about double that distance, and is built close 

 to the edge of the upper belt of forest, that long line of woods 

 which, as already mentioned, stretches for several hundred miles 

 along the eastern side of Madagascar. Here, after a year's 

 strenuous work in college, or school, or church, or in literary 

 labour, or in something of them all, it is a pleasant and healthful 

 change to come for two or three weeks to the quiet and restful 

 influences of the beautiful woods, with their wealth of vegetable 

 life, and with much to interest in the animal life of bird and 

 insect. 



I ask my readers to accompany me then in a visit to Ankera- 

 madinika, and to wander with me in the forest and observe 

 the many curious and interesting things which we shall find in 

 our walks. The forest is here about seven or eight miles across, 

 and from the verandah we can see over the woods to the lower 

 plain of Ankay, and beyond this to the long line of blue moun- 

 tains covered by the lower and broader forest belt. A wonderful 

 sight this plain presents on a winter morning, when it is filled 

 with a white sea of mist, out of which the forest and the hills 

 rise like islands, and the feathery masses of cloud against their 

 sides have exactly the effect of waves breaking against a shore. 

 It will be fitting here to say a few words about the flora of 

 Madagascar, and here I may quote what my late friend, the 

 Rev. R. Baron, remarked in a paper read before the Linnaean 

 Society in 1888. l He says : 

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