100 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. IV. 
noble tree, it is less magnificent than the Poinciana regia . 
The estate of Wolmar comprises about 1200 acres, and yields 
excellent cane. The works are furnished with vacuum pans, 
and some of the most recent improvements. I here saw for 
the first time, in its different stages, the whole process of 
sugar making, from the grinding of the cane to the final 
drying of the crystallised sugar. On this estate, which is 
low, and near the sea, there were some of the largest trees 
I had seen in the island, especially the Badamia. I noticed 
here, what I had also observed elsewhere, that whatever might 
be the size of the trunks of the trees, most of the large branches 
appeared to have been broken off at a short distance from 
the main stem, while the indentations and seams in different 
parts of the trunk itself indicated that a great arm of the tree 
had been violently broken off or torn out, leaving in these 
fractured limbs and scarred trunks a memorial of the force 
of the hurricanes which occasionally sweep across the island. 
The sky became overcast towards the end of the week, the 
wind tempestuous, and the rapid fall of the barometer indicated 
the approach of a hurricane. Ohms as signals of distress 
were heard during the Saturday night; and on Sunday, the 
29th of January, when Mr. W. Brownrigg kindly drove me into 
Port Louis that I might discharge my Sabbath duties, I 
found but a small assemblage, all the ships that could leave 
having put to sea. In the morning a Dutch vessel came 
in dismasted and otherwise injured. During the day, I also 
received letters from Madagascar, a vessel having arrived in 
the unusually short time of four days from Tamatave. Be- 
turning to Plaines Wilhelms in the cool of the evening was 
exceedingly pleasant; on the following day, however, the 
rain came down in sheets, and the plain was flooded. But 
whenever thus confined to the house, I usually found my 
way to the well-furnished library; and, notwithstanding the 
unsettled state of the weather, time passed very pleasantly 
