166 
POPULAK SCIENCE KEYIEW. 
With but one exception, there is no trace of glacial action 
along the coast between the river Rion and Trebizond. This 
exception is at Hamshun, high up in the Lazistan mountains. 
Here, at 6,900 feet, is a granite-strewn plateau, thinly green 
with grass, sheltered from the sea by lofty peaks on the north- 
west and backed to the south-east by tremendous jagged 
granite cliffs, the highest 12,500 feet above the sea. ‘‘The 
plateau itself was about forty miles in length, irregular in 
breadth, its surface rounded and jotted over with boulders. 
But just as my track led near under the base of Verehembek, 
at an altitude of 8,300 feet, it crossed a large broad moraine,” 
descending from the higher slope, and having its base in a 
broad bare valley not far below ; thus indicating that here, too, t 
at the highest and widest part of the Lazistan chain, perpetual j; 
ice had once existed in sufficient quantity to furnish one !j 
glacier. But if warrantable conclusions can be drawn from 
a single instance, the limited ice- cap of the Hamshun high- |j 
lands extended no further down than 8,500 or 9,000 feet, | 
thus differing by a line of 1,000 to 2,000 feet from the glacial i 
covering of the inland range. 
My friend Mr. Greorge Maw has lately proved that similar ! 
glaciers formerly existed in Morocco, since he met with un- i 
mistakable moraines in his interesting journey, along with Dr. h 
Hooker and Mr. Ball, to the summit of the great Atlas in 
1871. “After four hours continued ascent,” he writes (p. 19), | 
“ the termination of the glen comes into full view, and we ! 
observe with great interest that it is closed by a group of 
moraines, proving the former existence of glaciers in the Atlas, i 
and confirming my opinion that the great boulder beds flanking I 
the chain are also of glacial origin. Two villages, probably the 1 
highest in the Atlas, are built on the principal moraine, Eit- j 
masan at its base, at a height of 6,000 feet, and Arroond, near | 
its summit, at a height of 6,800 feet ; the terminal angle of 
the larger moraine having a vertical height of over 800 feet. 
It is composed of immense blocks of porphyry, lying at a steep 
angle of repose, up which it takes us nearly an hour to climb. 
The existence of these moraines in latitude 30-|- (the latitude 
of Alexandria) is perhaps the most interesting fact we noticed 
during our journey, for this is the most southerly point at 
which the evidence of extinct glaciers has been observed, and 
tends to confirm the opinion entertained by many geologists, 
that the refrigeration during the glacial period was almost 
universal.” * | 
“ A Journey to Morocco and the Ascent of the Great Atlas.” A lecture 
delivered before the Birmingham and Midland Institute, Slater, Ironhridge, j 
Salop. 
