A MAGNIFICENT VIEW 209 



miles west of Antananarivo, and is about five miles long from 

 east to west, and three miles from north to south. It is irregu- 

 larly square in outline, several small headlands breaking up its 

 shores into little bays ; while to the north, where the river 

 Lilia takes its overflow to the sea, is a long extension or arm 

 of the lake, curving round a mountain, which proves to be an 

 old volcano. Seen from the east, as I approached it from the 

 capital, it appeared as if in a depression of the general surface, 

 and its waters were of a lovely blue. A still finer view of it is 

 obtained from a mountain called Amb6himiangara, which is 

 about three miles distant from it to the north-east. This is by 

 far the highest point for a long distance around the lake ; and 

 as we proceeded towards it during our two days' journey from 

 Antananarivo, its great rounded mass gradually rose and 

 dominated the whole landscape. 



A late friend of mine, who resided long in the district, wrote 

 of Amb6himiangara as "a kingly hill, higher by head and 

 shoulders than any other near it, its crown of white stones 

 rising some eighteen hundred feet above the lake lying blue at its 

 feet. The view from the summit was magnificent, the centre 

 of the whole being the lovely Itasy embosomed in its bright 

 green hills, a pearl encircled with emeralds, with mountains 

 upon mountains in every direction as far as eye could reach. 

 Fierce thunderstorms were being marshalled hither and thither, 

 and could be counted by the half-dozen wherever the eye turned. 

 The whole mountain is a mass of quartz ; where the rocks 

 protrude it is toned down to silver-grey by lichens, but where 

 the rain has washed it away, it appears as coarse sand and 

 pebbles of the purest white, with an occasional speck of pink. 

 . . . We had a good ride, after our descent, along the north- 

 western arm of the lake. This end of Itasy, forming, as it were, 

 a little lake by itself, and reflecting the deep blue and white of 

 the sky above it, lay calm in the bright sunshine, encircled by 

 the green hills, while clusters of houses, embowered in peach and 

 other trees, grouped themselves around its shores. Here and 

 there a canoe's dark line among the sedges showed where the 

 fisher was at work with hook and line ; and across the meadow 

 to the right, a herd of cattle was slowly wending its way to fresh 

 pastures. Altogether, it formed a most inviting subject for a 

 picture." 



