Water-Carriers
The woman with a baby on her back has a full pitcher simply balanced on her head
This same bearer assured us that in the rainy season—contrary to what one would have supposed—the water of the lake diminishes, but increases again in the dry season. He told us that there is an outlet to the water, which forms a spring to the north of the mountain. I noticed a white line a foot or two above the surface of the water all round the foot of the cliffs, showing a probably higher level than at the time of our visit. It was popularly supposed to be unfathomable, but some years after my visit the Rev. Johannes Johnson, of the Norwegian Mission, sounded the lake in three places. The deepest portion was found to be at the northern end, where it proved to be four hundred and seventy-four feet in depth.
A MAGNIFICENT VIEW
Walking round to the southern end of the crater edge, the lake, here foreshortened, has a somewhat close resemblance in outline to that of the lake of Galilee, as seen on maps; but I must confess that the first sight of it in its deep chasm made me think much more of the other lake of Palestine, the Dead Sea, in its profound gorge between the Judean hills and the highlands of Moab. After making a slight pencil sketch or two, I proceeded up the far higher saddle-back ridge on the western side. Here the lake seems much diminished in size and lying far down at an awful depth. But a magnificent and extensive view is gained of the surrounding country: the long flat-topped lines of hill to the east running many miles north and south, and surmounted directly east by the two perfect cones of old volcanoes; the peaked and jagged range of Vòlombòrona to the south-east; the enormous mass of Ibity to the south, and then west, a flat region broken by abrupt hills. To the north-west are the thickly populated valleys towards Bétàfo, with many a cup-shaped hill and mountain marking old volcanic vents; and beyond this a high mass of country with serrated outline against the sky, showing the district of Vàvavàto; and finally, coming to due north, is the varied grouping of the hills, which form the southern termination of the central mountain mass of Ankàratra. Between us and these again is the extensive plain of Antsìrabé, with the white walls and gables of the church and the mission buildings plainly visible in the bright sunhsine, although ten or twelve miles distant—altogether, a panorama long to be remembered. From this point also the significance and appropriateness of the name given to the old volcano is clearly seen; for Trìtrìva is apparently a combination of the words trìtry, a word used to describe the ridge on the back of a chameleon or a fish, and ìva, low, deep; so that the name very happily describes the long steep western ridge or crater wall, and the deep chasm sweeping down from it.
THE VOLCANIC DISCHARGE
It may just be said further, that the slopes of the crater both inside and out are covered with turf, which grows on a dark brown volcanic soil, mingled with rounded pebbles of greenish or purple lava, very compact and close in structure, and containing minute crystals scattered sparingly through it. Occasional blocks of this are found round the edge of the crater wall, and the same rock crops out at many places on the steep inner slopes. I did not notice any vesicular lava or scoria; and at a little homestead not far from the north-eastern foot of Trìtrìva, I was surprised to find the hàdy or fosse dug to twelve or fourteen feet deep almost entirely through the red clay or earth found all through the central regions of the island. The dark brown volcanic soil, here seen in section, appeared to be only eighteen inches deep, with layers of small pebbles. So that the discharge of the volcanic dust and ash appears to have extended only a short distance from the mountain; at least it does not appear to have been very deep, unless, indeed, there has been much denudation. It must be remembered, however, that this point is to the windward side of the hill; probably the volcanic soil is deeper to the west of it. The much greater height of the western wall of the crater is no doubt due to the prevailing easterly winds carrying the bulk of the ejected matter to the west, and piling it up to two or three times the height of the eastern side. After seeing the amount of gneiss rock which must have been blown out of the vent, I expected to have found much greater quantities of it, and in larger blocks, than the very few and small fragments actually seen on the outer slopes. The greater portion, however, is probably covered up under the quantities of volcanic dust and lapilli which were subsequently ejected.
Trìtrìva, it will be evident from this slight sketch, will greatly interest those who have a taste for geology and physical geography; while its peculiar and somewhat awe-striking beauty makes it equally worthy of a visit from the artist and the lover of the picturesque. Certainly it became photographed upon our memory with a distinctness which rendered it a vivid mental picture for many a day afterwards.
VOLCANO OF ANKÀRATRA
Returning northward from Antsìrabé towards the neighbourhood of Itàsy, we have to pass to the westward of the great massif of Ankàratra; and the summits of this mountain mass being the highest points in the centre of the island, a short space must be devoted to a brief description of it. From the capital, Ankàratra is the most prominent object in the landscape to the south-west, rising by easy gradients to about twice the elevation of the general level of Imèrina, and three or four points showing distinctly against the sky, although they are from forty to forty-five miles distant. The highest point is called Tsiàfajàvona (“that which the mists cannot climb”), and is eighty-six hundred and thirty-five feet above sea-level. There is no doubt that the whole mountain is an ancient volcano, for the rock which has been poured out as lava from it is a black olivine basalt. One peak, to the east, consists of mica-trachyte; and at its northern foot there is an exposure of augite-andesite rock. “Seen from Antanànarìvo, the mountain of Ankàratra seems to be one almost uniform mass, but when actually there, it resolves itself into deep ravines, enormous spurs, conspicuous peaks, and isolated or continuous mountain masses. The spurs, which run out like so many fingers in all directions, and to great lengths from the main body of the mountain, do not represent so many lava flows, but have been formed by the numerous streams which have excavated the deep and wide valleys between them.”
The amount of lava that has issued from Ankàratra, says Mr Baron, is truly astounding, reaching in places to a depth of twelve hundred to fourteen hundred feet, and occasionally to as much as two thousand feet. Occasionally the basalt assumes a columnar form; but everywhere the surface of the lava is decomposed into soil. This, and the apparent absence of all craters on and around the mountain, seems to point to a long period having elapsed since the volcano was active, probably several centuries. When on the highest point of the mountain, there appear to be two ranges of summits; which lie in the form of a cross, the intersection being marked by a small cone. On the south-western slopes are considerable remains of forest, which probably in former times covered a large proportion of the present bare highland of the interior of Madagascar. It is by no means easy to get natives to go with one to these lofty points. They are afraid of the vengeance of the spirits of the mountains, who will punish all who dare invade their territories.