Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/186

Rh 168 MADAGASCAE, an important island in the Indian Ocean, and the third largest island in the world, is about 300 miles from the south-east coast of the African con tinent, from which it is separated by the Mozambique Channel. It is 980 miles in length from north to south, the northern point, Cape Ambro, in 12 S. lat., inclining 16 to the east from the longitude of Cape St Mary, the southernmost point, in 25 35 S. lat., so that the main axis of the island runs from north-north-east to south-south west. The broadest portion of Madagascar is near the centre, where it is nearly 350 miles across, and there it is only 230 miles distant from the African coast. From this part of the island its northern half forms a long irregular triangle, while south of it the average breadth is about 250 miles. Its total area is nearly 230,000 square miles, or not quite four times the extent of England and Wales. Although known to Arab merchants for more than a thousand years past, and frequently visited by Europeans since the beginning of the 16th century, Madagascar is still but imperfectly explored. A careful survey of the coast was made in 1823-25 by Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N., but all maps of the interior up to about ten years ago were constructed on the most insufficient data. But during the last decade many portions of the island pre viously unknown have been traversed by missionaries and naturalists, and maps, more or less detailed, have been prepared of a considerable portion of the interior. Con spicuous in this work have been the missionaries of the London Missionary Society and the Friends Foreign Mission, especially the lite Rev. Dr Mullens, whose large map, published in 1879, embodied all that was known up to that date, and also M. Alfred Grandidier, a French traveller and scientist, whose great work on the island is now in process of publication. Madagascar has a very regular and compact form, with but few indentations considering its great extent of shore line. Along two-thirds of its eastern side the coast is almost a straight line, without any inlet, for Tamatave and Foule Pointe, which are the most frequented ports on this side of the island, are only open roadsteads protected by coral reefs. North of this, &quot;however, is Antongil Bay, a deep and wide inlet running northwards for about 50 miles ; farther north is Port Louquez, and at the extreme point of the island is Diego Suarez Bay, one of the finest harbours in the world. The north-western side of Madagascar is broken up by a number of spacious inlets, some of them landlocked and of considerable size. Going southward, these are the bays of Chimpaiky, Pasandava, Port Radama, Narinda, Majambo, Be&quot;mbatoka, and Iboina, as well as the estuaries of some of the rivers. South of Cape St Andrew, the north-west angle of the island, there is nothing else in the shape of a gulf until we reach the estuary of the river Onilahy, or St Augustine s Bay. Rounding the southern end of the island, we find no other inlet until we come to the small bay of Itape&quot;ra near Fort Dauphin, at the southern extremity of the straight line of coast already mentioned. The islands around Madagascar are few and unimportant. The largest are St Marie s, near the eastern coast, a narrow island about 30 miles long, and Nosibe&quot;, larger and more compact in form, opposite Pasandava Bay on the north west coast. Except the Minnow group, north of Nosibe&quot;, the rest are merely rocky islets, chiefly of coral. Much light has been thrown upon the physical geography of Madagascar by recent explorations. In most accounts, up to a very short time ago, a &quot; central mountain chain &quot; is described as running throughout the island as a sort of backbone from north to south ; and most maps show this, with numerous branches extending in various directions. It is, however, now quite clear that instead of this supposed mountain chain there is an elevated mountainous region, from 3000 to 5000 feet in altitude, occupying from a third to two-fifths of the whole interior, but lying more towards the north and east. Around this upper region are extensive plains, at a much less elevation above the sea, and most developed on the western side of the island, and in its southern portion beyond 23 S. lat. But this lower region is not entirely level, as it is broken up towards the west by three prominent lines of hills running north and south. See Plate IV. The shores of the greater portion of the southern half of the island are low and flat, but in the northern half much of the coast is bold and precipitous, the high land often approaching the sea. On the eastern side the plains vary from 10 to 50 miles in breadth, but on the western side they often exceed 100 miles across. From these coast plains the ground rises by successive ranges of hills to the high interior land. This elevated region is broken up in all directions by mountains, the highest in the island being centrally situated as regards its length, but more to the eastern side. These are the summits of the basaltic mass of Ankaratra, four of the peaks ranging in elevation from 8100 to 8950 feet above the sea, and from 3900 to 4700 feet above the general level of the surrounding country. The loftiest of these is named Tsi-afa-javona, i.e., &quot;that which the mists cannot climb.&quot; Besides these highest points there are a considerable number of mountains in the central provinces, varying in height from 5000 to 7000 feet, the highest as yet measured being lavohaika (&quot; the Lofty defying one&quot;), 7100 feet high, about 30 miles west- south-west of Ankaratra, arid the highest point of a remarkably rocky and rugged district named Vavavato (&quot; Stonemouth &quot;). There are also very many lofty and grand peaks in the Be&quot;tsile&quot;o province, some, it is said, nearly 8000 feet high ; and in the Bara country the Isalo mountains are compared by a recent traveller to the &quot; Church Buttes &quot; and other striking features of the scenery of Utah, on the line of the Pacific Railway. One of the grandest of all the Madagascar peaks is an isolated mountain near the northern point of the island, called Amber or Ambohitra. This is said to be more than 6000 feet high, and, rising, not as do those before-mentioned, from an elevated plateau, but from plains little above the sea-level, is a remarkably majestic hill as observed from every direction, and is well seen far out to sea. In the elevated region of Madagascar are many fertile Valleys plains and valleys. Among these are Be tsimitatatra in and Ime rina, and Tsie nimparihy in B6tsil6o, supplying a large J^&quot; proportion of the rice for the capitals of these two pro vinces. Still more extensive valleys are the pliin of the Antsihanaka country, the valley east of Angavo, and the Ankay district between the two eastern lines of forest (all of which are one step downwards towards the lower coast plains), and the valley east of the Be&quot;maraha range in the Sakalava country. Sections across the central portions of Madagascar show that there is a somewhat saucer like depression in the centre, the eastern and western edges rising higher than the enclosed space. The eastern ridge is the higher of the two, so that the watershed for a con siderable distance is much nearer the eastern than the western side, averaging from 50 to 80 miles from the sea. The country is well watered, even in the highest ranges of the interior, the abundant rainfall giving a perennial supply to the innumerable springs and streams. There are, therefore, no extensive districts that can be called desert, except parts of the west and south-west provinces, where the rainfall is scanty. The extreme southern portion is also reported to be arid, but as yet little is accurately known of this part of the country. As is necessarily the case from the physical conformation Elvers.