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362 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR OIIAP. XIII. The prince appeared much interested in learning the names and properties of some few of the plants we saw on our route. Soon after five o’clock we reached Isoaierana, a spacious building, which the prince had more than once pointed out during our ride, telling me it had been built by the late king Eadama. An immense hill had been removed to provide a site for this building, which we ap proached by passing through a level space four or five hundred yards wide. The prince then asked if I would enter; and, alighting from the palanquin at one of the principal entrances, he took my arm, and led me in, until we reached a large room nearly a hundred feet long and forty feet wide, apparently occupying the entire centre of the building. It was a splendid room, though too low to be well proportioned. The walls were wainscoted, the floor of native wood beautifully polished, and inlaid in large square panels or mosaics, some kinds richly coloured, and varying almost through every shade, from ebony to maple. It is said there are forty rooms on the ground floor of this build ing, besides chambers or attics; but as the evening was ad vancing, we did not prolong our stay. All the servants in the house retired to a distance as we entered; but as we departed, they gathered outside, and offered their salutations to the prince. This remarkable building is altogether of wood, the walls outside covered with diagonal panels, the sides screened with double verandahs, and the roof covered with shingles. The lower verandah is protected by an iron railing, and also by an iron chain on low posts, at a short distance from the house. Considering the state of civilisation in the country at the time of its erection, Isoaierana is an astonishing building, and would be a splendid mansion had it but been higher. It was built about thirty years ago, as a sort of suburban re sidence, by Eadama, under the direction of M. Le Gros, a