HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
5 
54 In further commendation thereof, I will take the liberty 
of extolling it, I hope without offence, as Moses did the 
land of Canaan : 4 It is a good land, a land in which rivers 
of waters and fountains spring out of the vallies and moun¬ 
tains: a land of wheat and barley, of vineyards, of fig- 
trees and pomegranates: a land wherein thou shalt eat 
without scarcity, neither shalt lack any thing therein: a 
land whose stones are iron, and out of whose mountains 
thou mayest dig brass/ ” * 
The geological features of the country are distinct and 
prominent; and although hitherto but very partially exa¬ 
mined, present considerable variety. The greater part of 
the island exhibits primitive formations, chiefly granite, 
sienite, and blocks of exceedingly pure quartz; some¬ 
times large pieces of beautifully-coloured rose-quartz are 
met with; the white kind is used by the natives to orna¬ 
ment the summits of their tombs; cyst, intersected by 
broad veins of quartz, and a substance resembling grey 
wacke or whinstone, is frequently seen. Many of the 
formations are of clay-slate ; and a valuable kind of slate, 
suitable for roofing and writing upon, has been discovered 
in the Betsileo country, at about a hundred miles from the 
capital. Silex and chert; with beautiful formations of 
chalcedony, primitive limestone, including some valuable 
specimens of marble, with different kinds of sandstone, 
are also met with. Finely-crystallized schorls frequently 
occur in the Betsileo country, where, embedded in lime¬ 
stone, apparently of fresh-water formation, specimens of 
fossils, including serpents, lizards, cameleons, with different 
kinds of vegetable fossils, have been found. 
No subterranean fires are known to be at present in 
active or visible operation; yet in some sections of the 
* Osborne’s Voyages, Vol. ii. p. 634. 
