Mr Baron says that the agy is Mucuna axillaris; it is not, however, “a tree,” but a climbing plant, and had grown over the tree under which Mr Montgomery happened to pass. He had himself a similar experience on his way to Mojangà, and the sensation “reminded him of the sting of a nettle, but was ten times more virulent.”
A PERPETUAL DELIGHT
Our second day’s canoe voyage brought us into a part of the river, with many windings among park-like glades of trees. Then the lovely fan-palms became very numerous; at times we passed closer to the banks, a tangled mass of bàraràta bending down into the river, and the tall grey columns of the palms standing up sometimes from the very edge of the water, with their graceful crown of green fans sharply defined against the blue of the sky. Everything seemed to be steeped in light and heat. Surely of all the millions of beautiful things in this beautiful world, palms are among the most lovely, and the fan-palm not least among this glorious family of trees. It was a perpetual delight to the eye to watch them as we swept rapidly by the banks with the strong current, as one by one they passed by as in a panorama. But for mosquitoes, certainly parts of the tropics are earthly Edens. These palms are called Sàtranabé, and are much used by the western peoples in building their huts. A smaller species, called Sàtramira, is also employed in manufacturing mats and baskets. Both are species of Hyphæne.
But beautiful objects were not the only ones prominent in this journey, and the presence of the scaly reptiles we saw every few minutes was not altogether in harmony with the graceful palms. They seemed, indeed, to be somewhat out of place, “survivals,” as indeed they are, of an earlier age of the world when gigantic saurians—creeping, walking, swimming and flying—were the ruling existences, in a world of slime and mud and ooze, and not in accord with these beautiful trees, which seem as if they should rather be associated with bright-coloured birds and insects than with these crawling saw-backed monsters. Beautiful birds were not wanting, however, in the scene, for we came across a flight of lovely little sun-birds, with bright metallic plumage, which glittered in the sunshine.
FRUIT-BATS
Birds are not the only flying creatures to be seen in this western region; although I was not so fortunate as to see them, Mr Grainge, in travelling down this river in the preceding year speaks of seeing great numbers of fruit-bats (Pteropus edwardsii). Their flight is slow, and broken at each moment by strokes of the wings; and those he saw flew so straight and steadily that he took them at first, in the doubtful evening light, for benighted crows. He also remarks that they were always flying in a direct line from the setting sun. One that he shot measured more than four feet across the wings. M. Pollen says that they may be seen sometimes in broad daylight, flying from one forest to another, when one might take them for crows. He also remarks: “I have observed these animals fly like swallows over a lake, just skimming the surface of the water with their wings. They choose isolated places, especially the little wooded islands at some distance from the coast.”
Madagascar is the home of one or two other species of fruit-bat, two species of the horseshoe-bats (Rhinolo-phidæ), seven species of the Vespertilionidæ or true bats, and three species of the Emballonuridæ or thick-legged bats; no doubt there are still many species undescribed, and until much more minute investigation is made of the fauna of the island, the crepuscular and nocturnal habits of these animals will always make it difficult to learn much about their peculiarities.
The morning’s voyage brought us in several places along low sections of stratified sandstone rock, looking like ruined walls, some courses being deeply honeycombed by the action of the water, while others, of harder material, were smooth, like newly laid masonry. It was clear that we had left behind us, in the upper highland, the crystalline rocks, the granites and gneisses and the like, and were in a region of Secondary strata, like the oolites of our own country. Subsequent examination by many observers has confirmed this fact, and shown that an extensive series of Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks occupies a great portion of the western low land, from north to south of the island. These plains must have formerly been a portion of a wider Mozambique Channel than now exists to separate Madagascar from Africa.
In certain shales which occur among the Secondary strata of the western plains, Belemnites are so numerous that the Sàkalàva used them as rifle balls; while many species of ammonites are formed, some being a foot in diameter.