chap. xi. GENERAL ASPECT OE THE HILLY COUNTRY. 
295 
scarcely was, for, in the rich black earth, the weeds and 
brushwood grew with such rapidity and strength, as almost 
to dispute with the crops possession of the soil; and, but for 
the clusters of banana trees, with their large bunches of 
fruit, or the rows of sugar-cane, fifteen or eighteen feet high, 
and occasional patches of strong, rank tobacco plants, the 
whole was so overgrown with bushes and creepers, as to re¬ 
semble an uncleared waste more than a garden. Here were 
a number of large erythrina trees in full blossom. I also 
saw the Aleurites triloba , or candle-nut tree, as well as other 
old South-Sea Island acquaintances, but most of the trees and 
flowers were new to me. 
When the weather was fine I usually walked during the 
early part of the day, both for the sake of relieving the 
bearers, and of observing the country and its productions. 
The road, however, had been too wet and slippery to allow 
me to do so this morning, and we reached Manamboninahitra, 
where we halted for breakfast at eleven o’clock, having tra¬ 
velled about twelve miles. At noon we set out again, our 
route continuing, according to the compass, a little to the 
northward of west. 
The aspect of the country before us was now changed. 
Lines of hills, with occasional breaks, stretched from north to 
south, as far as the eye could reach. Few portions of these 
lines rose to any great elevation above the rest, and no high 
single mountains were seen, but each succeeding range of 
hills or mountains increased in elevation as well as distance; 
the whole appearing like a series of serrated lines, one ex¬ 
tending above the other, from the ridge we were crossing to 
the last faint line of mountain tops which marked the far 
distant horizon. The valleys were generally filled with luxu¬ 
riant vegetation, and the hills covered with grass, or crowned 
with forests. 
Since leaving the country bordering the Iharoka, we had 
