A PLEASANT PICTURE 197 



their speech to us, spoke of our staying there that night, and 

 crossing the lake the following morning ; but as it was still 

 early in the day, and the water was not an hour distant, we felt 

 most unwilling to stop, especially as we feared risk of fever by 

 staying the night in such a low and damp situation. We there- 

 fore told them that we must, if possible, get across the lake that 

 day, and requested them to lose no time in getting sufficient 

 canoes to take us over. After tiffin, we determined to go and 

 see for ourselves, and with much difficulty got our men off. 

 The path was better than in the morning, a large extent of 

 land here being fine pasture and covered with cattle. 



Three-quarters of an hour brought us to the lake, a beautiful 

 expanse of water, but only one small canoe was visible, and a 

 stiff breeze from the east had raised waves of a size quite 

 formidable to such cranky craft as Malagasy canoes are. The 

 shore opposite to us seemed from three to four miles distant ; 

 to the northward the water extended for several miles, with 

 bays running up among the hills, and a large arm turning east- 

 ward in the direction of the valley through which the river 

 draining the lake flows into the sea. Many of the villages on 

 the rising ground across the water were seen quite distinctly (for 

 it had turned out a lovely afternoon) and seemed large places. 

 A considerable portion of the population is indeed massed 

 round this north-east corner of the lake, and we regretted being 

 obliged to leave so many large villages unvisited, but our time 

 would not allow us to go round the head of the Alaotra. The 

 picture was a pleasant one from the shore ; the expanse of blue 

 water, with the waves dancing and sparkling in the sunlight ; 

 the villages on the green hills across the lake ; and behind them 

 grand masses of mountain, with a good deal of dark forest 

 capping them. To the north of the Maningdry valley was 

 distinctly visible an extinct volcanic crater, with a large portion 

 of one of its sides broken down and revealing the immense cup- 

 shaped hollow within. The aneroid showed that the surface of 

 the lake was twenty-six hundred feet above the sea, about 

 nineteen hundred feet below the height of the capital. 



We waited and waited on the shore, sweeping the opposite 

 banks with our telescopes for signs of approaching canoes, but 

 looked in vain ; nothing like a canoe was to be seen, and the 

 waves got higher and higher ; evidently it would not have been 



