FROM COAST TO CAPITAL: ALONG THE SEASHORE 27
Travelling in Madagascar—Absence of Roads—“General
Forest and General Fever”—Pleasures and Penalties of Travel—Start
for the Interior—My Private Carriage—Night at Hivòndrona—Native
Canoes—Gigantic Arums—Crows and Egrets—Malagasy
Cattle—Curious Crabs—Shells of the Shore—Coast
Lagoons—Lovely Scenery—Pandanus and Tangèna Trees—Pumice
from Krakatoa—Sea and River Fishes—Prawns and
Sharks—Hospitable Natives—Trees, Fruits and Flowers—“The
Churchyard of Foreigners”—Unpleasant Style of Cemetery—“The
Hole of Serpents”—Killing a Boa-constrictor—The
White-fronted Lemur—Andòvorànto—How the Aye-Aye was
caught—What he is like—And where he lives—A Damp
Journey