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322 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. CHAP. XII. level path winding round the base of the hills. The bright sunshine, the fresh morning breeze sweeping over the open country, had such an exhilarating effect upon my bearers, that they started off at a brisk, and almost trotting pace, singing in concert as they travelled along for a considerable distance. We afterwards passed through one or two patches of forest; and, between three and four hours from the time of starting, halted for breakfast at Ampassapojy. Here, in addition to the usual presents of food, the wife of the chief brought me a basin of sweet new milk, the first I had tasted since leaving Tamatave. I made her what I hoped was a suitable return, as indeed I always endeavoured to do for the presents so kindly offered. Setting out again soon after noon, we travelled nearly west until about five o’clock, when we reached Moramanga, a village on a hill, where we rested for the night, and where a bullock was purchased, and killed for the bearers. The ground over which we had travelled had been comparatively level, the soil clayey, covered with thick coarse grass, the hills flatter, and more distant from each other. Many por tions of the country were gay with the seva, or Buddlea Madagascarensis, covered with long spikes of orange-coloured flowers. I also met with a fine growing fern, which I at first thought was new, but which has since been pronounced to be Osmunda regalia, indigenous in our own country, as well as other regions. The aspect of the country to the eastward of Moramanga was novel and interesting. For a dozen miles or more the district immediately below the village resembled a vast grassy plain, bounded by the hills of Ankay, and beyond them the higher mountain ranges of Ankova, appearing not with round or pointed sawlike summits, like the distant outline of the horizon in the country through which we had passed, but in long, blue, and almost level ranges of land, each range