152 WATERFALLS 



a pleasant picnic excursion may be made. One of these is 

 called " Tsi-mahare-ritsoka," which means, " Where a whisper 

 cannot be heard," for indeed, when near it, you must bawl as 

 loud as you can to be heard at all ; this fall is a succession of 

 cascades, coming down from a considerable height. At another 

 place a large body of water pours at one sweep over a great ledge 

 of rock, perhaps thirty feet deep. And along the automobile 

 road, only a few yards from it up a little valley leading into 

 the main valley of the river Mandraka, we were fortunate one 

 day to discover a most lovely waterfall of considerable height 

 in the midst of dense wood, with a large pool of water at its foot, 

 where a delightful bathe might be taken ; an ideal place for a 

 summer day. But the largest and grandest waterfall, and 

 within a little over an hour's walk from the sanatorium, is 

 really an artificial one ; for hi making the automobile road to 

 Tamatave along the Mandraka valley, the river was diverted 

 from a circuitous course over a number of rapids, and brought 

 by a short-cutting over a nearly sheer fall of about a hundred 

 and fifty feet, where it pours down a magnificent body of water, 

 with a roar and clouds of spray that wet everything for a long 

 way round. The sides of the cutting are being rapidly covered 

 with vegetation from the constant moisture, so that in a short 

 time it will have all the effect of a natural fall. The noise is 

 tremendous, and the fall can be seen from several points on the 

 main road. 



At the foot of the second of the waterfalls just mentioned I 

 was fortunate enough to see a rather rare frog, which is peculiar 

 to Madagascar. This little creature is only an inch long, as 

 regards the body, but on that and its long hind legs there are 

 semicircular patches of bright red on a black ground, so that 

 it is very conspicuous (Mantella baroni) (see illustration). 

 There is also a much larger frog, three inches in length, with 

 hind legs quite six inches long (Rhacophoras albilabris) ; this 

 species appears to be, in part at least, arboreal as well as 

 aquatic, as its toes are furnished with little disks instead of 

 claws (see illustration). He is, however, a giant compared with 

 the majority of the frogs found in the island, which are not 

 very different in colouring or size from the common English 

 species. These creatures are very plentiful in the rice-fields, 

 and as one walks along the valampana, or little banks separating 



