On Monday morning, 12th October, we left the village before sunrise and immediately began the ascent of Angàvo, which rises from fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred feet above the valley. It is an enormous mass of granite, capped with clay, the summit being scarped and fortified with earthworks; it is, however, not a detached mountain rising from a plain on every side, but rather a vast natural bastion or outwork of a higher level of country. There was a gorgeous sunrise, which covered the greater part of the sky with a crimson light, unlike anything I had ever seen before. Then for another hour or two we were passing through the upper belt of forest, here very narrow, being only ten or twelve miles across, but as dense and as beautiful as the lower and wider belt. And it was just as difficult to travel through as the other forest, descending into the gorge of the Mandràka river and then scaling the steep ascents. One place especially, where we crossed the stream, was a perfect combination of beauty—rushing waters, luxuriant foliage of fern and palm and bamboo—and hundreds of large blue and black papilio butterflies hovering over the river. At eight o’clock we reached Ankèramadìnika, a village close to the last ascent of the forest, and waited for a few minutes while my bearers bought manioc root at the little market. The people crowded round me, bringing various articles of food for sale—sweet potatoes, honeycomb, and wild raspberries. We had now left behind us the forest region and were on the bare open uplands of Imèrina, the air being clear and keen. The hills were less steep and more rounded, reminding me of some parts of the English chalk downs, and there was hardly a tree to be seen. In several places the granite or gneiss takes a dome-like form; and in others the same rock formed the highest points. For many miles I could see them rising high over every other hill; one of these, on the southern side of a huge mountain called Angàvokèly, was like a titanic castle; another, which is divided into three and called Tèlomiràhavàvy (“Three Sisters”), was like a vast church. [Sidenote: AMBÀTOMÀNGA]