322 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CIIAP. XII. 
level path winding round the base of the hills. The bright 
sunshine, the fresh morning breeze sweeping over the open 
country, had such an exhilarating effect upon my bearers, 
that they started off at a brisk, and almost trotting pace, 
singing in concert as they travelled along for a considerable 
distance. We afterwards passed through one or two patches 
of forest; and, between three and four hours from the time 
of starting, halted for breakfast at Ampassapojy. Here, in 
addition to the usual presents of food, the wife of the chief 
brought me a basin of sweet new milk, the first I had tasted 
since leaving Tamatave. I made her what I hoped was a 
suitable return, as indeed I always endeavoured to do for the 
presents so kindly offered. 
Setting out again soon after noon, we travelled nearly 
west until about five o’clock, when we reached Moramanga, a 
village on a hill, where we rested for the night, and where a 
bullock was purchased, and killed for the bearers. The 
ground over which we had travelled had been comparatively 
level, the soil clayey, covered with thick coarse grass, the 
hills flatter, and more distant from each other. Many por¬ 
tions of the country were gay with the seva, or Buddlea 
Madagascarensis, covered with long spikes of orange-coloured 
flowers. I also met with a fine growing fern, which I at 
first thought was new, but which has since been pronounced 
to be Osmunda regalis , indigenous in our own country, as 
well as other regions. 
The aspect of the country to the eastward of Moramanga 
was novel and interesting. For a dozen miles or more the 
district immediately below the village resembled a vast 
grassy plain, bounded by the hills of Ankay, and beyond them 
the higher mountain ranges of Ankova, appearing not with 
round or pointed sawlike summits, like the distant outline of 
the horizon in the country through which we had passed, but 
in long, blue, and almost level ranges of land, each range 
