APPENDIX. 239 



Madagascar.— My information is chiefly derived from 

 the published charts by Capt. Owen, and the accounts 

 given by him and by Lieut. Boteler. Commencing at the 

 S.W. extremity of the island ; towards the northern part of 

 the Star Bank (in lat. 25 S.) the coast for ten miles is 

 fringed by a reef; coloured red. The shore immediately 

 S. of St. Augustine's Bay appears fringed ; but Tullear 

 Harbour, directly N. of it, is formed by a narrow reef ten 

 miles long, extending parallel to the shore, with from four 

 to ten fathoms within it. If this reef had been more 

 extensive, it must have been classed as a barrier-reef; but 

 as the line of coast falls inwards here, a submarine bank 

 perhaps extends parallel to the shore, which has offered a 

 foundation for the growth of the coral ; I have left this part 

 un coloured. From lat. 22 16' to 21 37', the shore is 

 fringed by coral-reefs (see Lieut. Boteler's Narrative, vol. 

 ii. p. 106), less than a mile in width, and with shallow water 

 within. There are outlying coral-shoals in several parts of 

 the offing, with about ten fathoms between them and the 

 shore, and the depth of the sea one mile and a half seaward, 

 is about 30 fathoms. The part above specified is engraved 

 on a large scale ; and as in the charts on rather a smaller 

 scale the same fringe of reef extends as far as lat. 33 15'; 

 I have coloured the whole of this part of the coast red. 

 The islands of Juan de Nova (in lat. 17° S.) appear in the 

 charts on a large scale to be fringed, but I have not been 

 able to ascertain whether the reefs are of coral ; uncoloured. 

 The main part of the west coast appears to be low, with 

 outlying sandbanks, which, Lieut. Boteler (vol. ii. p. 106) 

 says, " are faced on the edge of deep water by a line of sharp- 

 pointed coral-rocks." Nevertheless I have not coloured 

 this part, as I cannot make out by the charts that the coast 

 itself is fringed. The headlands of Narrenda and Passandava 



