VOYAGE TO MADAGASCAR* 5 



contains two hundred millions of acres of 

 excellent land. It is watered on all fides by 

 flreams and large rivers j and above all by 

 a great number of fmall rivulets, which 

 have their fources at the bottom of that long 

 chain of mountains which feparates the eaft- 

 ern from the weftern coafl. The two higheft 

 mountains in the ifland are Vigagora in the 

 north, and Botiftmene in the fonth. 



Thefe mountains contain In their bowels, 

 abundance of foflils and valuable minerals* 

 The traveller, who, in the purfuit of know- 

 ledge, traverfes for the firft time wild and 

 mountainous countries, inter felted by ridges 

 and valleys, where nature, abandoned to 

 its own fertility, prefents the moft fmgular 

 and varied produdions, cannot help being 

 often ftruck with terror and furprife on 

 viewing thofe awful precipices, the fum- 

 mits of which are covered with trees, as an- 

 cient, perhaps, as the world. His aftoniih- 

 B 3 ment 



