Madrepore

“ They are Tubulipora patina and Tubulipora hispida;—and stay—break off that tiny rough red wart, and look at its cells also under the magnifier: it is Cellepora pumicosa; and now, with the Madrepore, you hold in your hand the principal, at least the commonest, British types of those famed coral insects, which in the tropics are the architects of continents, and the conquerors of the ocean surge. ”

“ Thus it is not very hard to understand how it is that fairly large specimens of Madrepores should have been found growing in Port Jackson, where they were certainly not pre-existent. Now, turning to the land-animals: our imports from the South Seas consist mainly of copra, pine-apples, bananas, cocoa-nuts, palm-leaf fans, hats, and native matting, and each of these brings along its quota of migrants. I had at one time brought to me a prettily marked Snake, alive, which was curled up in a bunch of bananas, and others have occasionally been found. ”

“ Sailors’ luck led the Nautilus straight to Reao Island, one of the most unusual in this group, which was discovered in 1822 by Captain Bell aboard the Minerva. So I was able to study the madreporic process that has created the islands in this ocean.
Madrepores, which one must guard against confusing with precious coral, clothe their tissue in a limestone crust, and their variations in structure have led my famous mentor Professor Milne-Edwards to classify them into five divisions. The tiny microscopic animals that secrete this polypary live by the billions in the depths of their cells. ”

“ But it is not correct to say that these reefs are entirety formed of madrepores. First, because the species which always form the most considerable banks, such as some meandrinæ, certain caryophylleæ, but especially the astreæ, adorned with the most beautiful and velvety colours, require the influence of light to perfect them; because they are not seen to grow beyond a few yards of depth; and because they cannot consequently be developed at a depth of ten or twelve hundred feet, as they would necessarily be, did they raise the cliffs in question. ”

“ MADURA (Dutch Madoera) , an island of the Dutch East Indies, separated by the shallow Strait of Madura from the N.E. coast of Java. Pop. (1897) , 1,652,580, of whom 1,646,071 were natives, 4252 Chinese and 558 Europeans. It extends from about 112° 32′ to 114° 7′ E., and is divided into two nearly equal portions by the parallel of 7° S.; the area is estimated at 1725 sq. m. It is a plateau-like prolongation of the limestone range of northern Java, with hills (1300 to 1600 ft. high) and dales. The formation of the coast and plains is Tertiary and recent alluvium. Hot springs are not infrequent ”

“ The nearest Indian towns were a good many miles away, and the Portuguese merchants in the neighbouring settlement of Mylapore were commercial rivals, who might have been supposed to have absorbed all the trade that was to be had. Yet Madras is now a large city, with more than half a million inhabitants; and its commerce and its industries have been so successful that its population is still increasing rapidly. Houses are being built everywhere, yet the demand increases. ”

“ But this lower region is broken up by masses of hills, with several elevated plateaus, especially in the south-west and south.
Physical Features.—Madagascar has a very regular and compact form, with few indentations considering its great extent of shore-line. In general outline it has a strong resemblance to the impression of a human foot—the left side. Along two-thirds of its eastern side the coast is almost a straight line, without any inlet, Tamatàve, the chief port on this side of the island, being only protected by coral reefs. ”

“ The vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant, the climate very hot. The coasts, where there are many swamps, are very unhealthy for Europeans, but the interior of the island is more salubrious. The chief productions are some peculiar balsams and gums, sugar, tobacco, silk, maize, indigo, and spices. The forests yield the handsomest kinds of wood for buildings and furniture, and trees bearing almost every fruit of the torrid zone. Among the various descriptions of palms, the beautiful water-palm is frequently found. In the animal kingdom Madagascar also possesses some peculiar species ”

“ Yet there are times and seasons when Madras is very enjoyable: just after the south-west monsoons, when all nature is clothed in verdant beauty, and a delightful coolness pervades the air, the Neilgerie Hills cannot be surpassed by those of Mahableshwa or any other sanitary station in India, even the Capital itself, whose shores are washed by the boiling surf from over the triple reefs of rocks during the rainy season; but that time being past, a more tranquil state of things pervades the ocean, and cool sea breezes waft over the city. ”

“ Ancient Soot returned to the home of his forefathers, and Mamba walked smartly along the road that leads to the seaport of Tamatave.
He spent that night in the residence of a friend; the next in the hut of a government wood-cutter.
Felling timber, as might be supposed, was, and still is, an important branch of industry in Madagascar. Forests of varied extent abound in different parts of the country, and an immense belt of forest of two or three days’ journey in width covers the interior of the island. ”

“ MADRAS, a presidency of British India—officially styled Fort St George—occupying, with its dependencies, the entire south of the Indian peninsula. The north boundary is extremely irregular. On the extreme N.E. is the Bengal province of Orissa; then the wild highlands of the Central Provinces; next the dominions of the nizam of Hyderabad; and lastly, on the N.W., the Bombay districts of Dharwar and North Kanara. Geographically Mysore and Coorg lie within the bounds of Madras, and politically it includes the Laccadive Islands, off the Malabar coast, in the Indian Ocean. ”

“ The book will have fulfilled its purpose if it helps the reader to realize that the City of Madras is a particularly interesting corner of the world. This fact is often forgotten; and even many of the people who live in Madras itself, and who are aware that Madras has played an important part in the making of India's history, are strangely uninterested in its historic remains. They are eloquent perhaps in denouncing the heat of Madras and its mosquitoes and the iniquities of its Cooum river ”

“ There was no soap of any kind in Madagascar in those days. The queen had come into possession of some English soap, and thought it desirable to get the white teachers to make soap from the materials found in her own island, and instruct some of her young noblemen to make it. This is not exactly noblemen’s [36] work, as we should think; but in those days, and in that land, every one had to do as the queen commanded, or have their heads cut off. ”

“ A great many more of the streets and districts of Madras have history in their names; but the few that we have dealt with suffice to exemplify the manner of the expansion of the city of Madras. We can picture the rustic suppliers crowding into the city to sell the produce of their fields; we can picture the humble weavers migrating into the city with their wives and their children, and with their pots and their pans and their quaint machines, in response to the Company's tempting invitation ”

“ The inhabitants of White Town included any British settlers not in the Company's service whose presence the Company approved, also all approved Portuguese and Eurasian immigrants from Mylapore, and a certain number of approved Indian Christians. White Town indeed was sometimes called the 'Christian Town.' Black Town was the Asiatic settlement. The great majority of the original Indian settlers were not Tamilians but Telugus—written down as 'Gentoos' in the Company's Records.
The Company's agents encouraged people of various races to reside in Madras ”

“ In the northern portion the soil is poor, and there is little wood. The country along the western boundary, known as the Jungle Mahals, is undulating and picturesque; it is almost uninhabited. The eastern and south-eastern portions are swampy and richly cultivated. The chief rivers of the district are the Hugli and its three tributaries, the Rupnarayan, the Haldi and the Rasulpur. The Midnapore high-level canal used also for irrigation runs almost due east and west from the town of Midnapore to Ulubaria on the Hugli 16 m. ”

“ Its slender stems are thrown up in artistic sweeps towards the sky, no two making the same curve, and its crown of foliage spreads out into a bouquet of fronds, arranged by nature with a skill that exceeds the cunning of the human hand. When the sun has set and night is approaching the fire-flies swarm out and carry their scintillating lamps to their playground among the fronds.
Madras is well said to be 'a city of magnificent distances.' Not only are the roads long, but the private drives up to the houses are a considerable length. ”

“ XIII. THE SIDIS OF BOMBAY. AN AFRICAN REEL. Among the most curious of the modern portions of Bombay City one may reckon Madanpura, which lies off Ripon Road and is commonly known as the home of the Julhais or Muhammadan weavers from Northern India. It is a rapidly growing quarter, for new chals and new shops spring up every year and quickly find a full complement of tenants from among the lower classes of the population. ”

“ The population is unusually numerous, and reaches to probably eighteen hundred: we were told there were in the place a thousand children. As with their neighbours in this Mandridrano district, the people are well to do in the world: their cattle are numerous and rice and corn are cheap. Below Mahatsinjo on the south stretches a wide and level rice valley, supplied with abundance of water: the whole is under careful cultivation and its volcanic soil must produce enormous crops. ”

“ Not far away in truth, as distance goes, but how far away in spirit! Madaura was a large and handsome city, with a circus and theatre, and a fine forum, or market-place, set round with statues of the gods. It was proud of its reputation for learning, but had little else to be proud of. Its professors were men who were more ashamed of being detected in a fault of style than in the grossest crimes, who were ashamed indeed of nothing else. The pagan gods were held up to their scholars as models for admiration and imitation. ”

“ MADURA, a city and district of British India, in the Madras Presidency. The city is situated on the right bank of the river Vaigai, and has a station on the South Indian railway 345 m. S.E. of Madras. Pop. (1901) , 105,984. The city was the capital of the old Pandyan dynasty, which ruled over this part of India from the 5th century B.C. to the end of the 11th century A.D. Its great temple forms a parallelogram about 847 ft. by 729 ft., and is surrounded by nine gopuras, of which the largest is 152 ft. high. These ornamental pyramids begin with doorposts of single stones 60 ft. ”

“ The rice and anana are washed down with ranugang, or rice-water, thus prepared: Rice is boiled in a vessel, and purposely burned, until a crust forms at the bottom. The water is poured on, and allowed to boil. The water in colour resembles pale coffee, and in taste is abominable to a European palate. The natives, however, esteem it highly, and not only drink the water, but eat the crust.
* * * * *
One of the great ceremonies of Madagascar, the royal bath-feast, is described by Madame Pfeiffer. It is celebrated on the Malagasy New-Year’s Day, and has some curious features. ”

“ But these ideas appear to be borrowed from their Hindu neighbours. When the new rice crop is ripe, the first-fruits are cooked and served to the cattle in new bamboo baskets, and are then partaken of by men. The ripening of the mango crop is also an important festival. In the bright fortnight of Chait (March) the men go out hunting, and on their return cook the game before Mātideo, the god of hunting, who lives in a tree. In Madras the whole male population turn out to hunt, and if they come back without success the women pelt them with cowdung on their return. ”

“ The fact is that Madras was so frequently troubled by successive Mohammedan enemies—the King of Golconda; Da-ud Khan, Nawab of the Carnatic; Haidar Ali, Sultan of Mysore; his son Tipu, and others—that the Company was disposed to regard all 'Moors' with mistrust, so much so that they discouraged Mohammedan residents; and a measure was passed with the special intention 'to prevent the Moors purchasing too much land in the Black Town.' There are large crowds of Mohammedans in Madras now, grouped especially in Chepauk and the adjoining Triplicane and Royapettah ”

“ The colonisation of Madagascar by the Malay tribes is a topic full of interest: but we know almost nothing about it. It is singular that in the very first mention made of the island, the celebrated notice of it by Marco Paolo, he should have made a strange mistake and mixed it with information which belongs to the Somali country around Cape Gardafui. Madagascar has neither elephants nor hippopotami; neither leopards nor bears nor lions. ”

“ Madras is the third city in population of India, or next to Bombay, with 452,518 souls, by the census published last year. It is on the Coromandel coast, which is nearly the whole of the Madras Presidency. It is nearly the entire western shore of the Sea of Bengal, including the bay, as the northern part of it is called in modern times. There is scarcely a single safe harbor for large vessels. ”