The Itàsy just referred to is a lake situated about fifty-five miles west of Antanànarìvo, and is about five miles long from east to west, and three miles from north to south. It is irregularly square in outline, several small headlands breaking up its shores into little bays; while to the north, where the river Lilìa takes its overflow to the sea, is a long extension or arm of the lake, curving round a mountain, which proves to be an old volcano. Seen from the east, as I approached it from the capital, it appeared as if in a depression of the general surface, and its waters were of a lovely blue. A still finer view of it is obtained from a mountain called Ambòhimiangàra, which is about three miles distant from it to the north-east. This is by far the highest point for a long distance around the lake; and as we proceeded towards it during our two days’ journey from Antanànarìvo, its great rounded mass gradually rose and dominated the whole landscape. A late friend of mine, who resided long in the district, wrote of Ambòhimiangàra as “a kingly hill, higher by head and shoulders than any other near it, its crown of white stones rising some eighteen hundred feet above the lake lying blue at its feet. The view from the summit was magnificent, the centre of the whole being the lovely Itàsy embosomed in its bright green hills, a pearl encircled with emeralds, with mountains upon mountains in every direction as far as eye could reach. Fierce thunderstorms were being marshalled hither and thither, and could be counted by the half-dozen wherever the eye turned. The whole mountain is a mass of quartz; where the rocks protrude it is toned down to silver-grey by lichens, but where the rain has washed it away, it appears as coarse sand and pebbles of the purest white, with an occasional speck of pink.... We had a good ride, after our descent, along the north-western arm of the lake. This end of Itàsy, forming, as it were, a little lake by itself, and reflecting the deep blue and white of the sky above it, lay calm in the bright sunshine, encircled by the green hills, while clusters of houses, embowered in peach and other trees, grouped themselves around its shores. Here and there a canoe’s dark line among the sedges showed where the fisher was at work with hook and line; and across the meadow to the right, a herd of cattle was slowly wending its way to fresh pastures. Altogether, it formed a most inviting subject for a picture.”