AN EXTENSIVE VIEW 175 



I may remark that in former times the rude village chapels 

 generally formed the missionary's " Travellers' Bungalow." 

 They were usually not encumbered with pews or seats, or, 

 indeed, much furniture or fittings of any kind ; they were more 

 roomy than the native houses and generally much cleaner, at 

 least they had no soot hanging in festoons from the roof ; so 

 that they formed very convenient resting-places for a missionary 

 traveller, and a favourable place for meeting the people and 

 prescribing for their ailments. 



We had intended to proceed northwards on the following 

 day, but as we had to pass through the inner belt of forest and 

 enter on entirely unknown ground, as to which we could get no 

 definite information with regard to villages or congregations, 

 we eventually determined to stay at Anjozorobe over the 

 Sunday. Saturday morning was occupied in ascending a 

 mountain, four or five miles distant to the north (Ambohimi- 

 arimbe i.e. " The High Uplifting One "), to take bearings, 

 etc., and the afternoon in taking photographs of the village 

 and river valley. 



On Monday morning we resumed our journey northward, 

 and towards midday entered the belt of forest which covers 

 that western line of hills of which I have already spoken. 

 We had been approaching it obliquely in a north-north-east 

 direction for the last two days. An ascent of about five 

 hundred feet brought us to the summit, for the road passes 

 along the narrow knife-edge-like ridge of the very highest 

 point, a hill called Ambaravarambato ("At the Stone 

 Gateway "), having two heads of almost equal height, with 

 a depression between them. These points, from their peculiar 

 outline, gave us a useful landmark to connect our journey 

 northwards with the ground we had already traversed. Soon 

 after noon we stopped for a few minutes at the top, and had 

 an extensive view all around us. North and south, the line 

 of forest-covered hills dividing Imerina from the lower plateau 

 of Ankay stretched away on either hand into the far distance. 

 Behind us were the bare hills and downs of Imerina, before us 

 the Ankay plain, many of the low hills covered, and almost 

 every valley filled, with bright green woods. Beyond this were 

 lines of hills increasing in height until they met the mountains 

 of Beforona and Analamazaotra, clothed with the broader of the 



