172 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. VII. and eagerly asked my friend how much longer the men would remain before recommencing their journey. As he said an hour or so, I induced one of them to accompany me with the camera to the wood, and having selected a couple of trees, partly covered with creepers, and bearing on different parts of their trunks or branches beautiful plants of Angrcecum superbum in bloom, and surrounded by ferns, Alpinia nutans, and other species of tropical vegetation, I fixed the camera before first one and then another, using waxed paper which I had excited in the morning before setting out, and hoping by this means to secure a memorial of the beautiful natural objects grouped before me. While the light was transferring the forms of the trees and the flowers to the paper in the camera, I set off in another direction, pene trating still farther into the wood, in search of other and rarer plants ; and found so many that, though it was but the commencement of the journey, I could not refrain from gathering a bundle to carry on to the place where we ex pected to halt for the night. On returning, I found the men who were my bearers gathered round the camera ready to proceed; and was perfectly relieved from any apprehension about their having been overtasked, either with the length of their journey or the weight of their load, by perceiving one or two of them, tall athletic, swarthy fellows, standing on their heads and amusing themselves and their companions by kicking their heels up in the air. After stopping altogether about two hours, we resumed our journey. Our road, or rather narrow winding footpath, for no vehicles ever travelled along it, now turned towards the mountains, and passed over a slightly undulated verdant country generally covered with masses of shrubs, or small trees. The bearers seemed invigorated with their rest and refreshment, and trotted along apparently in cheerful spirits. I noticed that whenever any one of the bearers wished to ease