322 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR chap. xii. 



level path winding round the base of the hills. The bright 

 sunshine, the fresh morning breeze sweeping over the open 

 country, had such an exhilarating effect upon my bearers, 

 that they started off at a brisk, and almost trotting pace, 

 singing in concert as they travelled along for a considerable 

 distance. We afterwards passed through one or two patches 

 of forest ; and, between three and four hours from the time 

 of starting, halted for breakfast at Ampassapojy. Here, in 

 addition to the usual presents of food, the wife of the chief 

 brought me a basin of sweet new milk, the first I had tasted 

 since leaving Tamatave. I made her what I hoped was a 

 suitable return, as indeed I always endeavoured to do for the 

 presents so kindly offered. 



Setting out again soon after noon, we travelled nearly 

 west until about five o'clock, when we reached Moramanga, a 

 village on a hill, where we rested for the night, and where a 

 bullock was purchased, and killed for the bearers. The 

 ground over which we had travelled had been comparatively 

 level, the soil clayey, covered with thick coarse grass, the 

 hills flatter, and more distant from each other. Many por- 

 tions of the country were gay with the seva, or Buddlea 

 Madagascarensis, covered with long spikes of orange-coloured 

 flowers. I also met with a fine growing fern, which I at 

 first thought was new, but which has since been pronounced 

 to be Osmunda regalia, indigenous in our own country, as 

 well as other regions. 



The aspect of the country to the eastward of Moramanga 

 was novel and interesting. For a dozen miles or more the 

 district immediately below the village resembled a vast 

 grassy plain, bounded by the hills of Ankay, and beyond them 

 the higher mountain ranges of Ankova, appearing not with 

 round or pointed sawlike summits, like the distant outline of 

 the horizon in the country through which we had passed, but 

 in long, blue, and almost level ranges of land, each range 



