the back and throat take the same tints as the head, and the belly and breast become white. [Sidenote: TAMARIND-TREES] We stopped for lunch at a low rising ground, a few feet above the water, at a grove of _Madìro_ or tamarind-trees, and under one of these we spread our meal. It was a magnificent tree, shapely and rounded in outline like a great oak or chestnut, the branches spreading over a circle of a hundred feet in diameter and touching the ground. The foliage was then rather thin, the leaves being minute, like those of a mimosa, and the ground was strewed with them, as well as with the pods of the fruit. Most of these were dry and worthless, but we got many fresh enough to eat, and their acid dark red pulp was very refreshing. Mr Baron believes the tamarind-tree to be truly indigenous to Madagascar, but only in the western region, which he thinks forms its original home. The seeds were, and probably still are, employed in the _sikìdy_, or divination; and a decoction from the leaves as a medicine. About an hour after leaving our stopping-place we came to the junction with the Bétsibòka, the latter being strongly coloured with red clay from North Imèrina. What impressed us most this afternoon was the total absence of population on the banks of this large river, and it appeared strange that immense tracts of such apparently fertile country should be uninhabited; it was different from the crowded villages along the Màtitànana and Mànanàra and other rivers in South-east Madagascar. In the afternoon the beautiful fan-palm became very plentiful, growing in extensive groves and mingled with the other trees. Stopping for the night by a sand-bank, we made the canoe fast to a stake and proceeded to put up the tents. Although dry and pleasant for a floor, the sand had the disadvantage of giving bad holding-ground for the tent-pegs, and, had not the fresh breeze died away at sunset, a very slight gust would have brought down the whole concern over our heads. [Sidenote: THE AGY-TREE] We might congratulate ourselves in not coming across, in short rambles among the trees, a tree which caused no small discomfort to some of our missionary friends in this very locality. Mr Montgomery thus describes his experiences. He says: