482 VESTIGES OF A PRE-ADAMITE CREATION? [chap. xvm. 
had been hidden from mankind, and that now appear 
before ns like the fossil bones of antediluvian animals. 
Are they vestiges of what existed in a pre-Adamite 
creation ? 
The geological formation of Central Africa is primi¬ 
tive ; showing an altitude above the sea-level averaging 
nearly 4,000 feet. This elevated portion of the globe, 
built up in great part of granitic and sandstone rocks, 
has never been submerged, nor does it appear to have 
undergone any changes, either volcanic or by the action 
of water. Time, working through countless ages, with 
the slow but certain instrument of atmospheric influ¬ 
ence, has rounded the surface and split into fragments 
the granite rocks, leaving a sandy base of disintegrated 
portions, while in other cases the mountains show .as 
hard and undecayed a surface as though fresh from 
Nature’s foundry. Central Africa never having been 
submerged, the animals and races must be as old, and 
may be older, than any upon the earth. No geological 
change having occurred in ages long anterior to man, 
as shown by Sir K. I. Murchison theoretically so far 
back as the year 1852, when Central Africa was utterly 
unknown, it is natural to suppose that the races that 
exist upon that surface should be unaltered from their 
origin. That origin may date from a period so dis¬ 
tant, that it preceded the Adamite creation. Historic 
man believes in a divinity ; the tribes of Central 
Africa know no God. Are they of our Adamite 
race ? The equatorial portion of Africa at the Nile 
sources, has an average altitude above the sea-level 
of about 4,000 feet; this elevated plateau forms the 
base of a range of mountains, that I imagine extends, 
like the vertebrae of an animal, from east to west, 
shedding a drainage to the north and south. Should 
this hypothesis be correct, the southern watershed 
would fill the Tanganika lake; while farther to the 
west another lake, supplied by the southern drainage, 
may form the head of the river Congo. On the north 
a similar system may drain into the Niger and Lake 
