ABSTRACT
In 1852 Sir Roderick Murchison advanced the hypothesis that Africa, south of the Sahara, was a continent of great antiquity and simplicity, which had maintained the form of a great basin ever since the age of the New Red Sandstone. Murchison based his theory on the discoveries of Bain, the pioneer of South African geology ; but he drew support for it from the probability that Lakes Ngami and Tchad, at the two ends of the supposed basin, were connected by others reported by classical traditions and modern traders. Murchison regarded these lakes as the remnants of a series which had existed uninterruptedly throughout two of the three great eras of the earth’s history.1
