MADAGASCAR 
CHAPTER I 
SITUATION AND EXTENT 
The mighty island of Madagascar, which the French 
Creoles of the neighbouring Mascarene Isles call La Grande 
Terre, lies nearly parallel to the coast of East Africa 
from N.N.E. to S.S.W. The Mozambique Channel, 
which separates it from the Continent, is some 250 
miles across. It is the largest island in the western 
portion of the Indian Ocean and, if we omit Green¬ 
land, is only surpassed in extent by New Guinea and 
Borneo, being 230,000 sq. miles in extent. Its shape 
is elliptical, the major axis, running north and south, 
is 1000 miles in length, while the greatest breadth, 
at the latitude of Eoule Point, about the middle of 
the island, separates the east from the west coast 
by 375 miles. It extends over nearly 14 degrees of 
latitude, from Cape Amber, the most northerly point, in 
11° 59' 52", according to Grandidier, to the most southerly. 
Cape Ste. Marie, in 25° 38' 55" S. lat. The positions 
of these places on the old map by Pedro Reinel, dated 
1517, are tolerably near to those given by modern 
observations. The most westerly point, in the Bay of 
Eandivotra, lies in 43° ii' E. long., and the East Cape 
in 50° 27' E. long. In comparison with this insular 
colossus the islands which lie near, as well as those 
far out in the ocean, sink into insignificance. A visitor 
receives the most imposing impression by looking 
at the coasts in bright weather from the eastern side 
of the island, because there the mountains are toler¬ 
ably near to the coast. Mountain ridges running north 
