SMALLER LSLANLDS NEAR MAEAGASCAR 
159 
Nossi-Be has become the centre of trade with the 
Sakalava coast. 
The imports, consisting of cotton, glass, fayence, 
musical instruments, spirits etc., are remarkable. The 
amount of trade in 1893 was nearly ^200,000, of which 
T100,000 were for imports and T95,000 for exports. 
France is only credited with T 14,000 of the imports. 
The retail trade is carried on by Arabs and Hindoos, 
dwelling chiefly in Ambanuru, who can get good 
credit from the wholesale merchants, while the Creole 
dealers are quite untrustworthy. At the present time 
both import and export trades are principally in German 
hands, a Hamburg house having a flourishing factory 
on Nossi-Be. 
3. THE COMORO ISLES 
This singular group of islands, lying in the north of 
the Mozambique Channel, between Madagascar and the 
African continent, and extending from 11° to 13° S. lat., 
consists of the four islands—Mayotta, Anjuan or Johanna, 
Mohilla, and Great Comoro or Angasija. The total area 
amounts to 770 square miles, of which 390 fall to the 
share of Great Comoro, 
The islands are exclusively of volcanic origin; neither 
primitive rocks nor sedimentary formations have been 
shewn to exist there. The edge of the coast, on the 
other hand, displays extensive coral reefs. Darwin remarks, 
in his work on the distribution of coral reefs, that Mayotta 
is surrounded by a barrier-reef from 3 to 6 miles distant 
from the land. There are many breaks in the circuit, 
and the channel within the reef is from 36 to 38 fathoms 
in depth. 
A coral barrier is also mentioned on the south-east 
side of Johanna. Mohilla seems likewise to be surroun¬ 
ded by a reef, but there is a harbour on the southern 
