142 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
peopled, and productive much beyond the wants of the population. 
Along the equator, at heights varying from 6000 to 12,000 feet, the 
travellers found a delicious climate, with abundance of water, and no 
excessive heat, full of cattle and corn. In the kingdom of Karagwe 
(lat. 1° 40', elevation 5100 feet), the temperature for five months 
ranged from 60° to 70° at 9 morning. From what they could learn 
of the country to the westward of the lake, it preserves the same 
character for several hundred miles, and I know that Captain 
Speke believes there is a continuance of that which he calls the 
Fertile Zone almost to the coast of the Atlantic. He tells his 
friends he has “discovered a great fertile zone there, caused princi- 
pally by the Mountains of the Moon, situated close to the equator, 
in the midst of the continent of Africa. These are great rain 
condensers. Bound them are the sources of several rivers, the Nile 
on one side, the Tanganyika and the Congo on the other. The 
rains falling all round make that a fertile zone — the most fertile in 
the world. There is nothing in India or China to equal it.” 
It is in that direction the indefatigable traveller proposes to make 
his next expedition, and let us hope that in two years more we shall 
welcome Captain Speke returning from the mouths of the Congo. 
I know not whether to congratulate or condole with the Society 
upon another advance in science, or whether that is to be called an 
advance which some consider a double trespass, a breaking down of 
the boundaries between geology and archaeology, and overleaping the 
ancient landmarks which divided natural science from sacred history. 
Certain well-known discoveries of hand-shaped weapons and 
implements, found along with the remains of some extinct animals, 
in undisturbed beds of a very ancient alluvial deposit both in France 
and in England, led the antiquary, whose department is limited to 
the human period, to seek to extend that period into what had 
hitherto been the exclusive province of the geologist ; and the 
geologist again, driven to admit that these flint spear-points have 
been shaped by man’s hand, and used upon (or among) the Eleplias 
yrimigenius^ the Rhinoceros^ and other extinct animals whose teeth 
and bones now hear them company, has to seek for an extension of 
the period hitherto allotted for the operations and deposits which 
the race of man has witnessed. 
