304 OUTRIGGER CANOES 



scattered hamlets, of three to six huts each, began to appear. 

 The crocodiles were numerous, from the old patriarch to the 

 infant of a foot or so long. We must have seen a hundred of 

 them that afternoon. We had some difficulty in landing and 

 pitching our tents, and on account of the heat and the mos- 

 quitoes passed the most uncomfortable night of the entire 

 journey. Hardly anyone was able to sleep, and I was glad to 

 get up at four o'clock and dress in the bright moonlight and 

 rouse up the others. 



Our fourth (and last) day of canoe voyaging was begun soon 

 after six o'clock. Outrigger canoes made their appearance, a 

 style of craft the Hovas seem never to have invented, nor are 

 such in use on the east coast. The scenery increased in boldness, 

 with precipitous hillsides rising from the side of the river, which 

 here was about the size of the Thames at Kew. About an hour 

 after leaving, we found the current running up the stream ; it 

 was feeling the influence of the tide from the ocean, still many 

 miles distant. The foliage was most dense and luxuriant, from 

 the summit of the hills down to the water's edge, in some parts 

 the long lianas forming immense festoons and making a perfect 

 wall of exquisite green, w r hile the ever-present bdrardta shoots 

 up its feathery head. After some time we turned from the 

 main stream into a branch river, much narrower, but running 

 for many miles in a straight line. As the day advanced, the 

 intense sunlight made everything glow with light and heat, 

 lighting up the dense vegetation most brilliantly. Groups of 

 pandanus were frequent here among the more European-like 

 trees ; these are of two species, one rising into a lofty cone, al- 

 most like a low poplar, and the other one more spreading and 

 brandishing, with the aerial roots rising high above the ground. 

 After an hour or two we came again into the main stream, here 

 more than a mile wide, the banks being still thickly wooded. 

 It was intensely hot, and we were not sorry to see Marovoay 

 (" Many crocodiles ") a few miles ahead of us on a detached 

 hill to the east of the river. 



At one o'clock we stopped when opposite the town, the water 

 approach to it being by a small tidal stream which flows into 

 the main river some miles farther down. Our men were just 

 enough to carry the wife and baby and little girl in their palan- 

 quin across the mile or two, while the native nurse and I walked ; 



