Yol. 50.] GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF MOUNT KENYA. 523 



mountain is situated directly on the Equator. Bearing in mind that 

 the glaciation of Northern and Central Europe, North America, and 

 New Zealand took place in times which are geologically approximately 

 synchronous, the discovery of a great extension of the Equatorial 

 glaciers seems at first sight to support the idea of the universal re- 

 frigeration of the globe and to necessitate some astronomical expla- 

 nation of its cause. 



• Theories of the universality of glaciation arc here ignored because 

 of the absence not only of any traces of former more extensive 

 glaciation from the tropics, as in the Andes and Kilima Njaro, but 

 also from the Cape. 



The absence of evidence in the first of these three is very striking. 

 In spite of the extensive glaciers now in existence on the higher 

 peaks of the Andes, there is practically no evidence of their 

 former greater extension. Mr. "Whymper kindly tells me that only 

 in two cases did he see any traces of glaciation below the limits of 

 the present glaciers ; the chief of these were some decayed roches 

 below his second camp on Chimborazo, but it was only a little below 

 the level of the neighbouring Glacier de Debris. 



Nor has any such evidence been recorded from Kilima Njaro, 

 though over 100 Europeans have visited it. The majority of these, 

 however, have been sportsmen or naturalists with no geological 

 training, and the others have not reached the level which the glaciation 

 attained. Both Hans Meyer 1 and L. Purtscheller are well acquainted 

 with the appearance of recent glacial phenomena, but it is possible that 

 they may have failed to recognize the weathered traces of old 

 moraines. Some doubt may therefore be felt as to the negative 

 evidence in this case. 



Another negative record is that of Prof. Henry Drummond, who 

 says, "In East Central Africa not a vestige of boulder-clay, nor 

 moraine matter, nor striae, nor glaciated surface nor outline is 

 anywhere traceable;" and he adds ""It has been my lot to have 

 had exceptional opportunities of studying the phenomena of 

 glaciation." 2 



The third case is the most instructive. The one region of Africa 

 that one would expect to have been glaciated, if any were, is 

 Cape Colony : but it seems almost certain that, in spite of some old 

 records, this district cannot have been glaciated since at least 

 Cretaceous times, for otherwise erratics of the conspicuous ' Pipe- 

 Amygdaloids ' of the Stormberg series must have been carried on to 

 the surrounding lowlands. 



It does not therefore seem necessary to consider here the theory 

 that explains glaciation as being due to the alteration of the position 

 of the earth's axis of rotation, notwithstanding the remarkable astro- 

 nomical results recently obtained, which show that some shifting of 



1 Meyer speake of moraine-like ridges round the snow-fields, but explains 

 them as merely talus accumulations ( 'Across East African Glaciers,' pp. 312- 

 313). 



2 ■ Tropical Africa,' 4th edit. 1891, p. 198. 



