HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. 
3 
biage of ruins. On approaching nearer, they appear to be 
granite, having almost all their summits, in many places 
their sides also, and the valleys between them, covered with 
enormous blocks of stone; many stones in an upright posi¬ 
tion being from forty to sixty feet high; and some on the 
higher hills, which at a distance appeared like towers, 
seemed more than a hundred feet in perpendicular elevation. 
The strata of a considerable portion of the rock were large, 
and ranged in a position nearly perpendicular, apparently 
granite or gneiss. Some of it was beautiful in appearance, 
and certainly would be highly serviceable for many of the 
purposes of civilized life. 
“ We crossed this chain of hills at two different places, 
eight or ten miles distant from each other. The width 
across is ten or twelve miles; the romantic scenery of 
this highland region was agreeably enlivened by streams 
of very pure water, which wound their sparkling course 
through most of the ravines and valleys of the pass. In 
one of the hills there is said to be a cavern sufficiently 
capacious to contain a large number of men. The whole 
neighbourhood is stated to be infested with banditti, or 
robbers, so that travellers generally go in small companies. 
We saw several birds of the falcon kind among the rocks, 
but no quadrupeds. 
There does not appear to be any chain of mountains 
extending north and south through the island. Those 
represented in maps, and designated Ambohitsmena, signi¬ 
fying “ at the red villages,” are probably the Vohidrazana, 
forming part of the forest of Alamazaraotra, and the high¬ 
est section of forest west of Betanimena. Ambohitsmena 
is a name unknown in the island, and has probably been 
given by Europeans visiting and describing the eastern 
parts of the island. But though no continuous chain of 
