218 
MADAGASCAR. 
The distinguishing features of the Bara country 
are the extensive plains, which are traversed by 
magnificent rivers, and which are remarkable 
for the solitary and deserted aspect that they 
present, which aspect is broken somewhat, how¬ 
ever, by perhaps the most absurd and grotesque 
of Dame Nature’s most whimsical productions, as 
if she, in sheer pity for the dolorous traveller, 
had placed this quaint object in the very heart 
of this unattractive country to cheer and amuse 
him on his lonely way. I refer to the bontana 
(baobao) tree. It is impossible to approach it 
without laughing outright at the ridiculous ap¬ 
pearance which it always presents. There is 
nothing like it in the vegetable world. The 
height of the trunk is about twelve or fourteen 
feet, while its girth about six feet from the base 
is over twenty feet; its branches are insigni¬ 
ficantly small, and it has the appearance of a 
fat gallon bottle, the neck of which has been 
knocked off, and a few birch twigs put there 
instead. These trees are generally found quite 
singly, and at long distances from each other. 
One specimen recently seen in the Bara country 
measured over thirty feet in circumference, whilst 
its branches scarcely reached as many inches. 
Fossils have been found on the western en¬ 
campment of the great central ridge of the island, 
and the signs of long past but once active 
