But the most interesting natural curiosity to be seen in the neighbourhood of Antsìrabé is the crater-lake of Trìtrìva. This is situated about ten miles to the south-west, a pleasant ride of two hours by palanquin. Travelling at first in a westerly direction, the road then turns more to the south-west, and skirts the southern foot of the old volcano of Vòhitra. Passing about a mile or two south of the high ground round the southern shores of the Andraikìba lake, the road gradually ascends to a higher level of country, so that in about an hour and a half’s time we are nearly as high as the top of Vòhitra—probably about five hundred feet. Reaching a ridge between two prominent hills, we catch our first sight of Trìtrìva, now from two to three miles distant in front of us. From this point it shows very distinctly as an oval-shaped hill, its longest axis lying north and south, and with a great depression in its centre, the north-eastern edge of the crater wall being the lowest part of it, from which point it rises gradually southwards and westwards, the western edge being at the centre from two to three times the height of the eastern side. To the north are two much smaller cup-like hills, looking as if the volcanic forces, after the main crater had been formed, had become weaker and so been unable to discharge any longer by the old vent, and had therefore formed two newer outlets at a lower level. [Sidenote: AN OLD VOLCANO] Descending a little from the ridge just mentioned, we cross a valley with a good many scattered hamlets, and in less than half-an-hour reach the foot of the hill. A few minutes’ pull up a tolerably easy slope, perhaps two hundred feet in height, brings up to the top, at the lowest part of the crater edge; and on reaching the ridge the crater of the old volcano and its lake is before us, or, rather, below us. It is certainly an extraordinary scene. The inner sides of the crater dip down very steeply on all sides to a deep gulf, and here, sharply defined by perpendicular cliffs all round it, except just at the southern point, is a rather weird-looking dark green lake far below us, the water surface being probably from two hundred to three hundred feet lower than the point we are standing upon, and consequently below the level of the surrounding country. The lake, exactly shut in by the cliffs of the crater surrounding it, is not blue in colour, like Andraikìba, although under a bright and cloudless sky, but a deep and somewhat blackish-green. It must look, one would suppose, like ink under a stormy sky or in the shadows of evening.