335 
Mr. E. Newton’s Second Visit to Madagascar. 
called Chasmauna, where there were three or four tumble-down 
houses on the verge of a forest. 
The country through which we had passed was much the 
same as that through which the right fork flows, the hills only 
being on a larger scale. The channel of the river just above 
Ampasimaventy becomes wider and more rocky; occasionally 
its width is from one to two hundred yards, through which the 
stream runs in separate courses, as it is the dry season, making 
several very pretty waterfalls. In the rainy season, when the 
whole bed of the river is full, forming one grand torrent of foam, it 
must be magnificent. It struck me as singular what can become 
of the mass of water which even in the dry season flows down. 
I presume it must be absorbed or evaporated in the vast marshes 
and lakes on the immediate line of the coast; for the width of 
the river at its mouth is certainly not half as great as at Am¬ 
pasimaventy, perhaps twenty miles off, and not much deeper. 
At Chasm anna I was sorry to see the destruction of the forest 
still going on. Several large tracts were being cut down, and 
the fine timber was burnt as it lay on the ground, though there 
were thousands upon thousands of acres of ground apparently 
available and already cleared. We remained here three nights, 
when we were obliged to return to Tamatave, the arrival from 
Antananarivo of the Mauritian embassy being every day expected; 
and eventually I returned to Mauritius on the 12th October. 
During this trip I was able to ascertain the native names of 
most of the birds I observed. Each species nearly always has a 
separate one, and sometimes even more than one (for instance, 
Ardea bubulcus , the most conspicuous and characteristic bird of 
the east coast of Madagascar, has three), and I met with very 
few people who could not give at once the name of any species 
shown to them. The Marmites, who chiefly obtain their livelihood 
by carrying persons or goods from place to place, and conse¬ 
quently travel over various parts of the island, are generally 
acquainted with every synonym a bird may have; and I am led 
to believe that there are but few species which are known by the 
residents in the different districts by the same name. To 
Mr. Eiche I am indebted for the orthography of most of the 
local names. 
