EARTHQUAKES 225 



subterranean roar accompanies them and a tremor of several 

 seconds' duration. The Malagasy still remember a rather severe 

 earthquake which happened many years ago and detached a 

 large mass of rock from the cliffs on the precipitous west side 

 of the ridge on which Antananarivo is built. In September 

 1879 a severe shock, felt most in the V6niz6ngo district, was 

 experienced, and lasted for at least thirty seconds ; this was 

 accompanied by a loud rumbling sound, as of violent thunder, 

 and in places the ground was split up by the shaking. In the 

 year 1897, again, slight shocks were very numerous, and on 

 some days and nights the earth appeared to have been in a 

 constant state of tremor. These earth movements were felt 

 more especially in the region of old volcanic disturbance about 

 Lake Itasy, where hundreds of slight shocks were experienced 

 during seven or eight months. On the night of 2nd November 

 four or five sharp movements occurred, one of which was more 

 violent than anything remembered by the Malagasy, and 

 wakened the whole population of the capital and around it in 

 alarm. Chimney-stacks were thrown down, walls were cracked 

 and ceilings damaged. This earthquake appears to have been 

 felt over a very wide extent of country, from Tamatave and 

 the east coast to Mevatanana away north-west, and as far as 

 the Betsileo province in the south. It had the effect of stopping 

 temporarily the mineral spring at Antsirabe, which is so exactly 

 like Vichy water ; although, curiously enough, the hot-water 

 springs, within a few yards of the other, were not affected. In 

 the Ifanja marsh, a few miles from Itasy, a small mud geyser 

 is said to have appeared. 



I will conclude this chapter, in which much has been said of 

 extinct forms of existence, by a glimpse at the ancient animal 

 life of the island. Let us try to sum up these in a few sen- 

 tences. 



It seems probable that Madagascar, when the first represen- 

 tatives of mankind occupied it, was a country much more fully 

 covered by lakes and marshes, and also by forest, than it is at 

 present. In these waters, amid vast cane-brakes and swamps of 

 papyrus and sedge, wallowed and snorted herds of hippopotami ; 

 huge tortoises crawled over the low lands on their margins ; 

 tall ostrich-like birds, some over ten feet high, and others no 

 larger than bustards, stalked over the marshy valleys ; great 



