Proceedings of Learned Societies. 385 



Dr. Adams concluded from these facts that the Nile was 

 formerly a more rapid river than it is now, and that the force and 

 wearing power of the stream has "been steadily declining since the 

 upheaval of the valley ceased. 



Dr. Falconer also described two molars in a fragment of the left 

 maxillary of a very large Hippopotamus ; the specimen was dug up 

 near the old Temple of Kalabshe, in Nubia; and belonged to the 

 same species as the existing Hippopotamus of that country. 



EOYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.— Nov. 9. 



Discovert of Snowy Mountain Peaks in Tropical Africa, by 

 Baron yon Decken. — A paper was read from the Baron von 

 Decken, in which he mentioned that, on leaving Mombas, he pro- 

 ceeded southward along the coast to Wanga, and thence struck 

 westward up the river of that name. On reaching the Ugono 

 range, 5000 feet high, he found himself among a well-formed race, 

 sufficiently civilized to smelt iron, very rudely, certainly, but with 

 sufficient success to enable them to make no contemptible weapons. 

 He experienced much opposition from the natives, who had got a 

 notion that the mere presence of a European would prove fatal 

 to their cattle. On leaving the Wa- Ugono, or people of Ugono, he 

 coasted Lake Jipe on 'the west side, and, on reaching the northern 

 end, discovei-ed that the river Daffeta, after entering it from the ele- 

 vated tract beyond, left it within a mile or two of its entrance. The 

 next point was the Aruscha range, about 4000 feet high, beyond 

 which, at a considerable distance, was another lofty range, probably 

 the eastern watershed of Lake Victoria ISTyanza. Prom this point 

 there was a fine view of the two snowy peaks of Kilima-ndjaro. On 

 ascending the mountain, accompanied by Dr. Karsten, an accom- 

 plished astronomical observer, he encamped the first night at 6000 

 feet, the next at 11,000, in heavy rain, and saw snow at an eleva- 

 tion of about 13,000 feet. This disappeared by about 9 a.m., but 

 left a clearly defined limit of what seemed to be perpetual snow at 

 about 17,000 feet, the triangulations having previously given the 

 main peak an elevation of 20,065 feet, and the other upwards of 

 17,000. Still advancing upwards, he attained a height of 13,900 feet, 

 when his companions having given way, owing to the increasing 

 rarefaction of the atmosphere, he was compelled to retrace his steps. 

 He then returned through the Djagga country to the coast. One of 

 the most interesting features of Baron von Decken's paper was a 

 detailed account of a fly, called by the natives " Donderobo," whose 

 bite, as deadly as that of the better known Tsetse, described by 

 Livingstone, was fatal to asses and dogs only ; involving serious 

 inconvenience and even danger to the expedition, by the destruction 

 of the draught asses of the caravan. The effect of the poison 

 seemed to be to produce tubercular deposit, following immediately 

 upon acute inflammation. 



