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come down in that part of the world as low as in the Chamounix Valley. 
I pointed out that no ape could live for a single winter in the Chamounix 
Valley, and the reply was that in the Miocene period there have been found, 
in Arctic regions, fossils and plants of tropical growth, and the argument 
was that there might have been some warm spots in which our ancestor, 
the ape, might have been screened from the cold, and so have survived. 
I should have thought that if you could prove Glacial cold at the 
Equator in America you would find the same in Africa; I wish to be clear 
on this point. The anthropoid ape which is nearest to man is either 
the gorilla or the chimpanzee ; and, if man is descended from the ape, it 
must be from something like one or other of these animals. Du Chaillu, 
who discovered the gorilla and chimpanzee, found their habitat within 
two or three degrees of the Equator, south latitude, and it is there only 
that they are found. If you can get evidence that there was anything 
like glacial cold near the Equator in Africa, as has been proved with 
regard to America, then I think you have settled the point that our 
ancestor the ape could not have lived there. I have got here a few lines of 
Du Chaillu’s which I should like to read. He says:— “Not far from 
Makenga there was a remarkable and very large boulder of granite perched 
by itself at the top of a hill. It must have been transported there by some 
external force, but what that was I 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. Whilst I am on the 
subject of boulders and signs of glaciers I may as well mention that when 
crossing the hilly country from Obindje to Ashera’-land my attention was 
drawn to distinct traces of grooves on the surface of several of the blocks 
of granite which there laid strewed about on the tops and declivities of the 
hills. I am aware how preposterous it seems to suppose that the same 
movements of ice, which have modified the surface of land in northern 
countries, can have taken place here under the Equator, but I think it only 
proper to relate what I saw with my own eyes.” I thank him for relating 
this ; at that time he was not prepared to think that the glacial cold 
had come down so far, but he was certain it was proved that it did in 
South America. — It is in accordance with analogy to believe that this 
was the explanation he thought of, but did not like to put into print, 
although he has left it for us to consider to-night. If this were the case, 
no ape could have possibly lived there; and, therefore, no ape was living 
when man was first created. 
The meeting was then adjourned. 
