CHAP. VII. EUSTIC BRIDGE AND WOODLAND SCENERY. 175 



before they could get out of the way when the billows broke 

 in foam and spray upon the rocky beach. The rocks, in some 

 places, seemed to be crystal or quartz, occasionally also there 

 were fragments of coral. Numbers of small crabs and other 

 fish, apparently searching for food along the edge of the sea, 

 were startled into deeper water by our approach. We saw 

 also here and there a few natives digging for a larger kind of 

 crab in the sand along the higher parts of the beach. About 

 half-past eight we reached a broad stream, across which we 

 were ferried in canoes, and soon afterwards arrived at Ifotsy, 

 where we stopped to take breakfast. 



Eesuming our journey we crossed two rivers in the course 

 of the day, both deep ; over one of them, at Sakondro, a 

 rustic kind of bridge, skirted by trees, presented so complete 

 a picture of woodland and water, bank and bridge, that I re- 

 quested the men so to arrange their journey on our return 

 that we might stop at this place, intending, if possible, to 

 obtain a photographic view of the scene. The other was of 

 considerable width, in some parts so deep that we could only 

 cross it in canoes. Two or three houses stood near the bank 

 where my bearers set me down, and the master of one of them 

 invited me to enter. I followed him and found several 

 travellers either waiting to cross the river or resting on their 

 journey. 



Canoes, for ferrying passengers across the rivers, appear to 

 be provided by the government, or the chiefs of the district. 

 Once or twice we had to wait until parties who had arrived 

 at the water's edge before us had all been ferried over, and 

 travellers who arrived while we were passing had to wait 

 until we had crossed. With only one canoe, it sometimes 

 required two or three trips to carry us all over, yet no back- 

 wardness was manifested by the ferrymen, to whom the pas- 

 sengers generally gave a small quantity of rice for their 

 trouble. 



