INTERMEDIATE STAGES. 119 



survived.'"" Later writers also speak of the adventurous way 

 in which the people of the north-western islands put out to 

 sea in their outrigger canoes.t And on the south-east coast 

 the writer found that most ingeniously constructed boats 

 were in common use among the people, for going through the 

 heavy surf to the foreign vessels. (See chapter on Malagasy 

 Customs.) 



When, therefore, we consider both the great distances 

 occasionally traversed in the Pacific, and the nautical skill 

 still evinced by the Malagasy, it seems less incredible than 

 it might at first sight appear, that even the 3000 miles 

 between the Malay Archipelago and Madagascar should be 

 crossed by canoes bringing the ancestors of the Malagasy 

 people. 



It will perhaps be objected that in the Pacific there are 

 numerous groups of islands which would serve as intermediate 

 stages in the passage between such widely-separated lands — 

 as, for instance, New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands — and 

 that crossing the Indian Ocean in one voyage would be a 

 very different undertaking. This is perfectly true, but it is 

 not necessary to conclude that the passage across was made 

 in one voyage. If we examine a chart of the Indian Ocean, 

 we shall find that there are numerous groups of small islands 

 scattered over its area, — the Maldive, Chagos, Amirante, 

 Seychelles, Mascarene, and others — which would serve as 

 resting-places between the Malayan region and Madagascar. 

 And if we examine the chart more minutely, we find that 

 many of these islands have circling reefs, a pretty sure sign 

 (according to Darwin and other authorities) that they are 

 sinking land, and so are no doubt of much less extent now 

 than at an earlier period in human history. It seems highly 

 probable, therefore, that in past ages not only were these 

 islands of much greater size than they are at present, but 

 that there was also land where now a wide ocean rolls its 

 waves. As already mentioned in speaking of the fauna of 

 Madagascar, it has been supposed by many naturalists 

 of eminence (Wallace, Sclater, Bates, and others), that in 



* See Guillain, op. cit., pp. 199, 200 ; Owen's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 12. 

 t Antananarivo Annual, No. iii. pp. 23, 24. 



