LAGOONS. 25 



thrown up by the ever-restless surf driven by the strong 

 south-east trade winds. 



This contest between the fresh and the salt water has 

 given rise to one of the most curious geographical features of 

 the east coast, namely, the long chain of lagoons which stretch 

 for several hundred miles along the shore. Many of these 

 look like a river following the coast-line, but often they 

 spread out into extensive sheets of water and form large 

 lakes. So short is the distance between the detached links, 

 that by cutting about thirty miles of canal to connect them, 

 a continuous w^aterway could be formed for 260 miles 

 along the eastern coast, a circumstance which will no doubt 

 at some future day be taken advantage of for commercial 

 purposes, as it would be a most valuable means of communi- 

 cation between distant portions of this side of the island. 



Except these lagoons, there are few lakes in Madagascar, 

 although, as already noticed, there were probably some very 

 extensive ones in a recent geological period. Of one of the 

 largest of these, the lake Alaotra in the Sihanaka province 

 is the relic ; this sheet of water is about twenty-five miles 

 long, and from four to five miles wide, spreading out at the 

 northern end into a hammer-head shape. The next in size is 

 Itasy in Imerina, which is about eight miles long ; and there 

 is another of some extent in the south-western part of the 

 island. 



The lower region of Madagascar consists of extensive 

 plains only a few hundred feet above the sea-level, but there 

 are at least three prominent chains of hills traversing it from 

 north to south, one of which appears nearly continuous in a 

 very straight line for above 600 miles. The eastern side 

 of the island is, for the greater part of its extent, without 

 any bay or indentation; indeed, for 500 miles, from Foule 

 Pointe to Fort Dauphin, the coast forms almost a straight 

 line. North of the first-named of these two places there is a 

 deep inlet forming the Bay of Antongil, and protected by 

 the mountainous peninsula of Maroa. Close to the northern 

 point of the island is one of the finest harbours in the world, 

 that of Diego Suarez or British Sound ; and the north- 

 western side is deeply indented with large bays, into which 



