334 Mr. E. Newton^s Second Visit to Madagascar . 
miles, in the hopes of finding a certain patch of forest which we 
were led to believe abounded with all living creatures that delight 
the eyes of a naturalist. The river winds between small hills, 
increasing in size as we get further to the south-west. Not long 
since they have been all clothed with forest, but the trees have 
been cut down and burnt for the sake of planting rice; not that 
the increased consumption of that article has been the motive, 
but the natives find that, after three or four crops on the same 
ground, the yield diminishes, and so the forest is sacrificed to 
obtain fresh ground. At the present time the country is 
covered with tall, rank grass, eight or ten feet high, and a species 
of Hedgchium, through which it is exceedingly hard work to force 
a passage. Occasionally a small patch of forest has been left 
standing, but to no great extent—probably some spot which 
superstition forbids the natives to disturb. Small villages perched 
on the tops of hills occur every mile or so; and the people appear 
very glad to see us, bringing us presents of fowls and rice, but 
not able to understand our object in coming up their river. A 
good few canoes laden with rice meet us, and occasionally we 
overtake one laden with that curse of the country, rum. For 
two days we paddled on, the stream getting stronger and 
narrower; the second day we passed about eight rapids, at each 
of which nearly all hands had to get out and drag the canoes up, 
making our progress very slow. At last, just as it was getting 
dark on the second day, we came to a much larger rapid, which 
would have taken some hours to ascend; and so here we resolved 
to stop, having got very little for our pains. The next morning, 
being unable to find any forest worth mentioning, and not 
having a sufficient number of men to make a journey on foot, 
we were compelled to paddle back to Soamandrikazay, an opera¬ 
tion our men found much easier than going up the stream. 
Notwithstanding this, they managed to capsize us in descending 
a rapid, and washed everything but guns, powder-horns, and 
shot-pouches out of the canoes. 
A few days after, Mr. Magee and I went up the left fork, 
or rather the main river, Hivondrona; and having proceeded 
to the small village of Ampasimaventy (which w T as as far as we 
could by canoe), we walked on, for about three hours, to a place 
