Although known to Arab merchants for more than a thousand years past, and frequently visited by Europeans since the beginning of the 16th century, Madagascar is still but imperfectly explored. A careful survey of the coast was made in 1823-25 by Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N., but all maps of the interior up to about ten years ago were constructed on the most insufficient data. But during the last decade many portions of the island previously unknown have been traversed by missionaries and naturalists, and maps, more or less detailed, have been prepared of a considerable portion of the interior. Conspicuous in this work have been the missionaries of the London Missionary Society and the Friends’ Foreign Mission, especially the lite Rev. Dr Mullens, whose large map, published in 1879, embodied all that was known up to that date, and also M. Alfred Grandidier, a French traveller and scientist, whose great work on the island is now in process of publication.

Madagascar has a very regular and compact form, with but few indentations considering its great extent of shoreline. Along two-thirds of its eastern side the coast is almost a straight line, without any inlet, for Tamatàve and Foule Pointe, which are the most frequented ports on this side of the island, are only open roadsteads protected by coral reefs. North of this, lιowever, is Antongil Bay, a deep and wide inlet running northwards for about 50 miles; farther north is Port Louquez, and at the extreme point of the island is Diego Suarez Bay, one of the finest harbours in the world. The north-western side of Madagascar is broken up by a number of spacious inlets, some of them landlocked and of considerable size. Going southward, these are the bays of Chimpaiky, Pàsandàva, Port Radàma, Narinda, Majàmbo, Bémbatbka, and Iboina, as well as the estuaries of some of the rivers. South of Cape St Andrew, the north-west angle of the island, there is nothing else in the shape of a gulf until we reach the estuary of the river Onilàhy, or St Augustine’s Bay. Rounding the southern end of the island, we find no other inlet until we come to the small bay of Itapéra near Fort Dauphin, at the southern extremity of the straight line of coast already mentioned.

The islands around Madagascar are few and unimportant. The largest are St Marie’s, near the eastern coast, a narrow island about 30 miles long, and Nhsibé, larger and more compact in form, opposite Pàsandàva Bay on the northwest coast. Except the Minnow group, north of Nôsibé, the rest are merely rocky islets, chiefly of coral.

Much light has been thrown upon the physical geography of Madagascar by recent explorations. In most accounts, up to a very short time ago, a “central mountain chain” is described as running throughout the island as a sort of backbone from north to south; and most maps show this, with numerous branches extending in various directions. It is, however, now quite clear that instead of this supposed mountain chain there is an elevated mountainous region, from 3000 to 5000 feet in altitude, occupying from a third to two-fifths of the whole interior, but lying more towards the north and east. Around this upper region are extensive plains, at a much less elevation above the sea, and most developed on the western side of the island, and in its southern portion beyond 23° S. lat. But this lower region is not entirely level, as it is broken up towards the west by three prominent lines of hills running north and south. See Plate IV.

The shores of the greater portion of the southern half of the island are low and flat, but in the northern half much of the coast is bold and precipitous, the high land often approaching the sea. On the eastern side the plains vary from 10 to 50 miles in breadth, but on the western side they often exceed 100 miles across. From these coast plains the ground rises by successive ranges of hills to the high interior land. This elevated region is broken up in all directions by mountains, the highest in the island being centrally situated as regards its length, but more to the eastern side. These are the summits of the basaltic mass of Ankàratra, four of the peaks ranging in elevation from 8100 to 8950 feet above the sea, and from 3900 to 4700 feet above the general level of the surrounding country. The loftiest of these is named Tsi-àfa-jàvona, i.e., “that which the mists cannot climb.” Besides these highest points there are a considerable number of mountains in the central provinces, varying in height from 5000 to 7000 feet, the highest as yet measured being làvohàika (“the Lofty defying one”), 7100 feet high, about 30 miles westsouth-west of Ankàratra, and the highest point of a remarkably rocky and rugged district named Vàvavàto (“Stonemouth”). There are also very many lofty and grand peaks in the Bétsiléo province, some, it is said, nearly 8000 feet high; and in the Bàra country the Isàlo mountains are compared by a recent traveller to the “Church Buttes” and other striking features of the scenery of Utah, on the line of the Pacific Railway. One of the grandest of all the Madagascar peaks is an isolated mountain near the northern point of the island, called Amber or Ambohitra. This is said to be more than 6000 feet high, and, rising, not as do those before-mentioned, from an elevated plateau, but from plains little above the sea-level, is a remarkably majestic hill as observed from every direction, and is well seen far out to sea.

In the elevated region of Madagascar are many fertile plains and valleys. Among these are Bétsimitàtatra in Imérina, and Tsiénimparihy in Bétsiléo, supplying a large proportion of the rice for the capitals of these two provinces. Still more extensive valleys are the plain of the Antsihànaka country, the valley east of Angàvo, and the Ankày district between the two eastern lines of forest (all of which are one step downwards towards the lower coast plains), and the valley east of the Bémaràha range in the Sàkalàva country. Sections across the central portions of Madagascar show that there is a somewhat saucer like depression in the centre, the eastern and western edges rising higher than the enclosed space. The eastern ridge is the higher of the two, so that the watershed for a considerable distance is much nearer the eastern than the western side, averaging from 50 to 80 miles from the sea. The country is well watered, even in the highest ranges of the interior, the abundant rainfall giving a perennial supply to the innumerable springs and streams. There are, therefore, no extensive districts that can be called desert, except parts of the west and south-west provinces, where the rainfall is scanty. The extreme southern portion is also reported to be arid, but as yet little is accurately known of this part of the country.

As is necessarily the case from the physical conformation of the interior, the chief rivers flow to the west and northwest sides of the island. The eastern streams are all less in size, except the Mangôro, which flows for some distance parallel with the coast. Few of them, therefore, are of much service for navigation, except for the light√iraught native canoes, and almost all of them are more or less closed at their outlets by sand-bars. Commencing at the southern point and going northward, on the eastern side, the principal rivers are the Mànanàra, Mànambavà, Màtitànana, Mànanjàra, Onivé and Mangôro, Màningôry, and the Anjàhanàmbo at the head of Antongil Bay, besides numerous smaller streams. On the north-west coast, going southward, are the Sofia and Màhajàmba, falling into Majàmbo Bay, the Bétsibôka with the Ikiopa, —the great drains of the northern central provinces, and forming unitedly the second largest river of the island and falling into Bémbatôka Bay,—the Mànjarày, Mànambôlo, Tsiribihina or Onimàinty, the largest river of Madagascar, draining by its tributaries the Kitsàmby, Màhajilo, and Mania the central parts of the island, the Môrondàva, Màharivo, Mangôky, the third largest river, the Màhanômby, Fiherénana, and Onilàhy.

Of these western rivers the Bétsibôka could be ascended by steamers of light draught for about 90 miles, and the Tsiribihina is also navigable for a considerable distance. The former is about 300 miles long; the latter is somewhat less, but by its affluents spreads over a greater extent of country. It brings down so large a body of water that the sea is said to be fresh 3 miles from the land. But owing to the height of the interior of Madagascar there is no uninterrupted water-communication with it from the sea by any of the rivers, which are all crossed by rocky bars, and in some cases by grand waterfalls, as on the Mania. The eastern rivers cut their way through the ramparts of the high land by magnificent gorges, amidst dense forest, and descend by a succession of rapids and cataracts. The Màtitànana, whose falls were first seen by the present writer in 1876, descends at one plunge some 400 or 500 feet.

On the eastern side of Madagascar the contest between the fresh water of the rivers and the sea has caused the formation of a long chain of lagoons for nearly three hundred miles. In many parts these look like a river following the coast-line, but frequently they spread out into extensive sheets of water. So short is the distance between these that, by cutting about 30 miles of canal to connect them, a continuous water-way could be formed for 260 miles along the coast. This will doubtless bo accomplished at some future time, with great benefit to the commerce of the country. Besides these lagoons, there are few lakes of any size in Madagascar, although there were probably some very extensive ones in a recent geological epoch. Of one of the largest of these the Alàotra Lake in the Antsihànaka plain is the relic; it is about 25 miles long. Next comes Itàsy, in western Imérina, about 8 miles long; and a large lake is reported by the natives to be formed by an expansion of the river Mangoky. Two salt lakes are said to exist near the south-west coast.

Among the many new facts brought to light by recent research in Madagascar is the evidence of very widespread and powerful subterranean action throughout a great part of the island, apparently extending almost unbroken from the south-east to the north-west and extreme north. This volcanic belt is part of a line which has its northern extremity in the Comoro Islands, all of which are volcanic in origin, and where, in Great Comoro, there is a still active vent. There is now no active volcano in Madagascar, but a large number of extinct cones have been observed in various parts of the country. In the central province of Imérina, within an arc of about 90 miles round the mass of Ankàratra, Dr Mullens counted a hundred craters. Others are found farther north, in the Antsihànaka province and the Màndritsàra valley, and on the north-west coast and its islands, the great mountain Ambôhitra being an old volcano. Others have been observed towards the southern extremity of the higher region of the island, as well as columnar basalt, and beds of lava rock, pumice, and ash. Slight shocks of earthquake are felt every year in Madagascar, and other signs of subterranean action are evident in the hot springs which occur at several places in the central and eastern provinces. Several of these are sulphurous and medicinal, and have been found efficacious in skin diseases.

The geology of Madagascar has as yet been very imperfectly investigated, for few travellers have possessed the special scientific knowledge requisite to give much value to their observations; and hardly anything has yet been done towards making collections of fossils, or in procuring specimens of rocks and minerals. There are, however, a few facts of a general character which are easily recognizable. In the first place, the upper region of the island already mentioned appears to consist chiefly of Primary and unstratified rocks—granite, gneiss, and basalt—which form the highest points of the hills, and present most varied and picturesque outlines, resembling titanic castles, cathedrals, domes, pyramids, and spires. The general face of the country consist^ of bare rolling moors, with a great amount of bright red and light brown clays, while the valleys have a rich vegetable soil of bluish-black alluvium. No stratified or fossiliferous rocks have yet been discovered in this upper part of the island, which appears to be very ancient land, and during portions of the Secondary and Tertiary periods probably formed the entire island, then about from a third to two-fifths of its present size, while the extensive southern and western plains were again and again submerged.

The lower portions of Madagascar do not, as far as is yet known, much exceed from 300 to 600 feet in height above the sea-level (except, of course, the three chains of hills in the south-west). They appear in several localities to consist of strata of the Secondary period, with fossils of the Neocomian age belonging to the genera Nervnea, Turritella, Ammonites, Terebratula, Khyηconella, Neritiηa, and Echinoderms, and also Foraminifera of the genera Alveolina, Orbitoides, Triloculiηα, &c. There are also beds of a much later age, containing fossils of recently extinct gigantic tortoises, hippopotami, and struthious birds. In addition to the rocks already mentioned as found in the higher portions of the island, there are also slate, mica schist, greywacke, chert, pink and white quartz, and an unstratified limestone deposited by hot springs. Iron exists in great abundance in the central parts of the country, and copper and silver are said to have been found in small quantities, but are not worked. Antimony seems to be plentiful in the north, and rock-salt, iron pyrites, plumbago, and various ochres and coloured earths are among the mineral products. On the north-west coast thin beds of lignite, suitable for steam coal, occur, but no true coal has yet been discovered.

The climate varies very much in different parts of the country. In the high interior districts it resembles that of the temperate zones, with no intense heat, and is quite old during the nights in winter. These parts of the island are therefore tolerably healthy for Europeans. But the coasts are much hotter, especially on the western side; and, from the large amount of marsh and lagoon, malarial fever is prevalent, and frequently fatal both to Europeans and to natives from the interior. The seasons are two— the hot and rainy season from November to April, and the cool and dry season during the rest of the year. Rain indeed falls almost all the year round on the eastern coast, which is exposed to the vapour-laden south-east trade winds, but it is much less frequent on the western side, being intercepted by the high interior land. No snow is known even on the loftiest mountains, but thin ice is very occasionally found; and hail showers, often very destructive, are frequent in the rainy season. Terrific thunder storms are also common at that period; waterspouts are sometimes seen, and hurricanes occur every few years, at very rare intervals ascending into the interior high land. Very few extended or complete observations have been made in different parts of the island as to temperature. On the eastern coast the heat is probably not very different from that of Bourbon and Mauritius, where the average annual mean is 77° and 78° in the shade, and the average daily range from 70° at sunrise to 86° in the afternoon. The temperature of the capital resembles that of Naples or Palermo.

' The flora of Madagascar is one of great fulness and interest, and recent collections have thrown much light upon its relationships. One of the most prominent features is the existence of an almost unbroken belt of dense forest all round the island, at no great distance from the sea, and generally following the coast-line. It appears to be continuous everywhere except on the north-west coast, where, however, the two lines overlap for about 100 miles, leaving an opening of 70 miles wide between them. This forest belt has an average breadth of from 15 to 20 miles, but reaches 40 miles in the north-east, and contains a large variety of hard-wooded and valuable timber trees, as well as numerous species of palm, bamboo, treefern, euphorbia, pandanus, baobab, tamarind, &c. Ferns are numerous, about two hundred and fifty species having been already collected, and there are many interesting orchids. The vegetation of the forests, the abundant epiphytes, the tree-mosses, the filmy ferns, and the viviparous character of many of the ferns, show clearly how abundant the rainfall· is in the forest region. Several trees and plants are characteristic of Madagascar vegetation; some of them are endemic, and others are very prominent features in the landscape. Among these are the traveller⅛- tree (Urania speciosa), with its graceful crown of plantainlike leaves growing in a fan shape at the top of a lofty trunk, and supplying a quantity of pure cool water, and every portion of it being of some service in building; the ròfia palm (Sagus Ruffιa), from whose pinnate leaves a valuable fibre used for cloth is obtained; the curious and beautiful lace-leaf or lattice-leaf (Ouvirandra fenestralis), a water plant whose root is edible; the Madagascar spice {Ravintsara madagascariensiβ), a large forest tree with ragrant fruit and leaves; and the tangéna (Tanghinia veneniflua), formerly so destructive to life from its employment as a poison ordeal. Although flowers growing on the ground are not remarkable for number or beauty, there are many magnificent flowering trees; conspicuous among these are the Poinciana regia, presenting, when in bloom, a mass of scarlet flowers; Colvillia racemosa, with yellow flowers; Cryptostegia madagascariensis, a purple-flowered creeper, and several species of Hibiscus, Mascarenhasia, Kitcìdngia, Tachiadenus, &c. There are large numbers of spiny and prickly plants, and numerous grasses, reeds, and rushes, many of them of great service in the native manufactures. Mr J. G. Baker of Kew says :—“We now know no less than two thousand flowering plants, and among the tropical types there are a considerable number of endemic genera. One natural order, Chlsenaceae, is strictly confined to Madagascar, and there are not less than fifty peculiar genera of plants, some of them very curious types. Besides these the tropical flora contains a large proportion—(1) of endemic speciesof generanot known elsewhere; (2)of species common to Madagascar, Mauritius, and Bourbon, but not known elsewhere; (3) of species that spread across tropical

Africa; (4) of species spread universally through the tropics of the Old World; and (5) of species spread through the tropics of both hemispheres. A small proportion of the Madagascar species are Asian but not African; and the flora of the mountains corresponds closely with that of the great ranges of the tropical zone of Africa.” “In the island altogether, the number of genera now known is about seven hundred; of these about eighty are supposed to be endemic, as far as present knowledge extends.” “The general plan of the flora follows thoroughly the same lines as that of the tropical regions of the Old World,” and thus leads to somewhat different conclusions to what are suggested (as will be presently seen) by a study of the fauna. It is, however, probable that the flora is as yet not half known, so that fuller research may modify some of the inferences drawn from the collections now available.

Among the food-giving plants are rice—the staff of life to the Malagasy—-in several varieties, maize, millet, manioc, yams, sweet potatoes, and numerous vegetables of European introduction. The fruits, indigenous and introduced, are the banana, peach, loquat, mango, melon, pine-apple, mulberry, orange, citron, lemon, guava, Chinese guava, fig, raspberry, tomato, and several others. Several spices are grown; ginger, sugar-cane, coffee, indigo, tobacco, cotton, hemp, gourds, dye-woods,...