CHAP. XII. 
THE FERRY OF THE MONGORO. 
323 
receding further away, but rising higher, and presenting only 
here and there a small conical elevation. 
More than one of the bearers of the packages had been 
seized with illness during the journey; and one to whom I 
gave some medicine, though better, was unable to proceed. 
On the following morning, it was discovered that four others 
had left their companions during the night, notwithstanding 
the distribution of the bullock and the promise of payment. 
Leaving five packages, therefore, to be sent after us, we 
started early across a flat country covered with coarse grass, 
and passed two or three sluggish rivers, choked at the sides 
with rushes and weeds. Over two of them were rude bridges. 
The men remarked of one of the rivers, on which I noticed a 
number of beautiful water lilies in flower, that there were 
plenty of crocodiles there. It was a wide muddy river, in 
great part overgrown with reeds. 
Between ten and eleven o’clock, we reached Andakana, 
where there is a ferry across the Mongoro, a smooth, but 
rapid river, about thirty yards wide. I was much surprised at 
the great number, both of men and women that crossed the 
river during the time we halted on its banks. We remained 
here about three hours, and were then ferried over, and after 
ascending for a considerable time, we passed along an elevated 
but level tract of country, until we came to a high mountain 
range, covered with wood. On reaching the summit of a hill 
called Ifody, we obtained a view as extensive and magnificent 
as the country had yet presented. The woods and mountain 
ranges of Ankay, over which we had travelled, were spread 
out behind us to the east; to the-north, the country of the 
Antsianaka, stretching away, like an almost unbroken table 
land; to the south was the mountain range we had crossed, 
and the province of the Betsileo, hilly and broken; and 
before us, to the west, the country of the Bezanozano and the 
mountain Angavo, beyond which were the hills of Ankova. 
