creeping and climbing plants that cover their trunks and branches, the multitude of lianas that bind everything together in a maze of cordage and ropes, the flowers which sometimes cover whole trees with a mass of colour, crimson, or golden, or purple—all these make a journey through these Madagascar forests a new pleasure and lead one to exclaim: “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works!” We were now also ascending towards the central highland of the interior, which lies at an elevation of from five to six thousand feet above the sea-level. Above this general elevation, which, however, is broken up by lesser hills and mountains in all directions, so that there is no level country except what have been the beds of ancient lakes, now dried up, the highest mountains do not rise to great altitudes. The _massif_ of Ankàratra, which forms the south-western boundary of Imèrina, the home of the Hova tribe, does not quite reach nine thousand feet in height above the sea. Until quite recently the summits of Ankàratra were always supposed to be the highest points of the island, but it has lately been discovered that there is a mountain called Ambòro, about eighty miles from the northernmost point, which is still higher, being nine thousand four hundred feet above sea-level. On my return to the coast in 1867 I found how much less difficult the journey from Antanànarìvo to Andòvorànto was than that in the opposite direction, owing, of course, to our descending nearly five thousand feet instead of ascending the same. [Sidenote: BÉFÒRONA] Béfòrona is situated in an almost circular valley, with a river running through it and surrounded by forest-covered hills. The village, like most in this part of the country, has the houses arranged in a square. Their floors are generally raised a foot or two above the surface of the ground, and are formed of bark, beaten out flat and laid on bamboos. The framing and roof are made of poles or bamboo, filled in with the stalks of the traveller’s tree, and thatched with leaves of the same tree. In the centre of these village squares was a flagstaff, and in others a pole with the skulls and horns of bullocks fixed to it. These are mostly memorials of the festivities connected with the last observance of the circumcision ceremonies, which are very important events with all the Malagasy tribes. We had a visit from the wife of the chief of the village, who brought us a present of fowls and rice. [Sidenote: A BLOW-GUN]