The route continued to be very easy travelling, with gentle ascents and one long one, following generally river valleys; and in the afternoon along a river bank for some distance, with pretty scenery of pandanus, adàbo, dracæna and other trees growing in clumps. This last-named tree, called _hàsina_ by the Malagasy, is believed to be a favourite with the Vazìmba, the supposed aboriginal inhabitants of the island, and was consequently planted where their graves are and where their spirits are thought to dwell in order to secure their good will. The leaves, which are sword-shaped, grow in large clusters, so that the tree makes a beautiful variety amongst other foliage. [Sidenote: A DESERT] We stopped on Wednesday night at a large village called Màngasoàvina, and the next morning passed along the eastern base of Andrìba, a lofty and very peculiarly shaped mountain, which had been prominent before us during the preceding day. It appeared to have a large flat top, and in outline resembled the stump of an immense tree left in the earth, its northern face being a stupendous perpendicular mass of rock. (Here I may remark, in parenthesis, that this Andrìba was expected, in the French war of 1895, to have presented the most formidable obstacle to the advance of an invading force and, in the hands of European troops, would certainly have done so.) In the afternoon we entered on the part called in Malagasy, _èfitra_, or desert, but which simply means an uninhabited region, and seemed to promise to be the most pleasant part of the whole route. A long deep gorge which we entered was beautiful with luxuriant vegetation, and in one of the lateral valleys I soon perceived the traveller’s tree, a sure sign that we were now from two thousand to three thousand feet lower than Imèrina. Every hollow was filled with trees; the hills became lower, and the vegetation more distinctly tropical, with graceful palms and other trees common on the eastern coast; as well as species of ficus, ròtra (_Eugenia sp._), hibiscus, tamarind and _rofìa_ palms; and the mango, escaped from cultivation, often attains the dimensions of a very large tree. [Sidenote: A PICTURESQUE SCENE]