Towards the beginning of December the earlier crop of rice comes into ear; and should the rains fall as usual during November, the remaining portions of the great rice-plain will be all planted out with the later crop, the whole of the level and its branching valleys presenting an unbroken expanse of green. Of this, the early rice shows distinctly as a darker shade of colour, although it will soon begin to turn yellow, as the grain ripens under the steady heat and the plentiful rainfall. Perhaps this is the time when Bétsimitàtatra is seen in its most attractive and beautiful aspect, for every part of it is covered with rice in some stage or other of growth and cultivation. [Sidenote: DAYS AND NIGHTS] To anyone coming for the first time into a tropical country from England, the comparative uniformity in the length of the days and nights throughout the year seems very strange. In Imèrina there is only about two hours’ difference in the length of the longest day, about Christmas, and the shortest day, early in July. It is dark at about seven o’clock on the first of January, and at about six o’clock on the first of July. Thus we have no long evenings, which are such a delight in the summer months in England; but, on the other hand, we escape the long nights and the short gloomy days of the English winter. We lose also the long twilights of the temperate zone, although I have never seen the almost instantaneous darkness following sunset which one sometimes reads about. There is a twilight of from fifteen to twenty minutes’ duration in this part of Madagascar. While, therefore, we miss the much greater variety of the seasons in England, we have many compensations, especially in the very much larger proportion of bright sunny days, the clear skies, and the pure atmosphere of our Imèrina climate. Very seldom have we a wet morning in any part of the year; and the heat is not more oppressive than it is in hot summers in England, while in the cold season the sharp keen air is bracing and health-giving. We never see snow in Madagascar, but a thin film of ice is very occasionally seen on the slopes of the Ankàratra mountains in July and August. [Illustration: ROCKS NEAR AMBÀTOVÒRY This shows the remains of the original forest. Cattle are grazing with a boy in charge] [Sidenote: THE HOURS]