No glacial marks have been observed on the seaward side of the range, except at Hamshun in the Lazistan mountains, between the River Riom and Trebizond. 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 is 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 slopes, and having its base in a broad bare valley not far below, which showed that here, at the highest and widest part of the Lazistan chain, perpetual ice had once existed in sufficient quantity to furnish at least one glacier. From this case it seems that the limited ice-cap of the Hamshun highlands extended no further down than 8,500 or 9,000 feet, thus differing by a line of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet from the glacial covering of the inland range. _The Glaciers of the Atlas Mountains._ Similar traces of glaciers have been observed in the Atlas mountains by Mr. George Maw,[257] in his travels in Morocco with Dr. Hooker and Mr. Ball 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, and confirming my opinion that the great boulder beds flanking the chain are also of glacial origin. Two villages, probably the highest in the Atlas, are built on the principal moraine; Eitmasan, 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 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 30½° N. (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.” _Glaciers probably the result of elevation above the Sea._