CIIAP. XI. 
BEAUTIFUL LAKE SCENEBY. 
285 
itself was about a mile across, with woody banks, which on 
the side towards the interior were often rocky and steep, pre¬ 
senting in some places marks upon the rocks high above the 
water, which appeared to indicate the level of the water at 
some former period. The rocks themselves appeared to be 
sandstone, but above these in several places along the shore, 
and in the neighbourhood, the upper parts of the high ground 
seemed to consist of loose sand, resembling that spread along 
the edge of the lake, which consisted chiefly of pulverised 
quartz. 
The vegetation on the borders of the lake presented greater 
variety than I had previously witnessed. Mangroves, mag¬ 
nolias, palmistes, two or three species of pandanus, one of 
them trifoliated and exceedingly graceful in its habit, with the 
broad-leaved traveller’s tree, were all growing together. The 
whole was enlivened by the frequent appearance of the plant 
with a petunia shaped flower, which I had met with on the 
previous day, and which, with its scarlet and pink flowers, 
looked at a distance not unlike a large species of azalea covered 
with blossoms. The angrsecum was abundant, and this in full 
flower, as well as the large bird’s nest ferns, might sometimes 
be seen at the end of the trunk of a dead tree that stretched 
its crooked length twenty or thirty feet over the water. 
Towards noon we reached the end of the lake Imoasa, and 
landed at a place bearing the not very inviting name of An- 
davaka-menarana, hole of serpents. The rain had now 
ceased, and while the men were preparing the breakfast I 
could not resist the temptation to explore the adjacent wood. 
A cluster of long, jointed, slender stalked shrubs growing by 
the side of a stream, and bearing clusters of pendulous flowers 
beautifully white, and larger and longer in the tube than 
the Stephanotis floribunda , first attracted my attention; but 
I searched in vain for seeds. The chief rarity I met with 
was a climbing plant with leaf and stalk somewhat resem¬ 
bling vanilla, or Dendrobium chrysanthum; but on closer 
