and its pieces are heavy: or it lies in layers, at times perfectly even, at times twisted like dough. Vast quantities have the little crystals of olivine in their tiny cells. The spongy lava and pumice have disappeared. The colour of the lava was in some masses a bright black: in others a pale lead colour: all over this district brown earth and mud are abundant: and they form a soil very different from the gritty red clay, the common soil of the island. Here and there we saw conical heaps of these lava stones, piled up by the people, who attach to them a superstitious reverence. We saw more of the volcanic system at a later period in this journey. MAHATSINJO we found to be no common town. It stands on a spur of a long clay ridge, the upper part of which is overlaid by the lava; and is a place of some importance. It contains three hundred houses, many of them large and built of wood with reed-panels. The houses stand on “terrace upon terrace” cut into the slope of the hill. The rova or government house is a substantial dwelling. The population is unusually numerous, and reaches to probably eighteen hundred: we were told there were in the place a thousand children. As with their neighbours in this Mandridrano district, the people are well to do in the world: their cattle are numerous and rice and corn are cheap. Below Mahatsinjo on the south stretches a wide and level rice valley, supplied with abundance of water: the whole is under careful cultivation and its volcanic soil must produce enormous crops. The town occupies an important position. Far richer in resources than Miádanamanjáka, it is the real capital of the Mándridráno district: it is surrounded by cultivated fields and has near it numerous villages. Indeed the district seems to have gathered a population of its own, settled in its choicest spots, and very much separated from their neighbours in Imamo. It illustrates the way in which Madagascar (even yet but partially occupied) has been peopled, and in which the various sections of one race have grown up independently of one another. There is abundance of Christian work to be done in the district, and Mahatsinjo will prove an admirable centre for that work, with several sub-centres around it. Mr. Sewell felt with us that it would be well worth while for the Friends to place an English missionary here. The people gave us a warm welcome: they eagerly attended Mr. Sewell’s Bible classes and services: and earnestly requested that one of us would stay and live amongst them.