Chap. XV. GRANITIC BOULDEES— GROOVED ROCKS. 293 



cannot undertake to say. I thought it possible that 

 it might have been a true boulder transported by a 

 glacier, like those so abundant in northern latitudes. 

 Although I visited it and examined it closely, I 

 found no traces of grooves upon it. On my way 

 from Mokaba to Yengue, I saw no boulders of quartz 

 or granite. 



My visits to this enormous block of granite were 

 so numerous that they attracted the notice of the 

 natives, and I was not a little surprised, one fine 

 morning, to find the village in a state of great ex- 

 citement about the rumour that the boulder was not 

 in the same place as it had always been, and that 

 the Oguizi had moved it. The people dared not 

 mention their suspicions to me ; indeed, they were so 

 much alarmed that they fled from me ; but they 

 surrounded my men, and, with every mark of fear 

 and superstitious excitement, asked them why I had 

 moved the stone. It was in vain that my men 

 attempted to laugh them down, and even when some 

 of them went with the villagers to examine the huge 

 block, it was impossible to make them see that the 

 block had not moved ; such was the effect their pre- 

 conceived ideas had upon their vision. 



Whilst I am on the subject of boulders and signs 

 of glaciers, I may as well mention that, when cross- 

 ing the hilly country from Obindji to Ashira-land, 

 my attention was drawn to distinct traces of grooves 

 on the surface of several of the blocks of granite 

 which there lie strewed about on the tops and de- 

 clivities of the hills. I am aware how preposterous 

 it seems to suppose that the same movements of ice 



