116 REPORTS BY CAPTAINS BURTON AND SPEKE [Jan. 24, 1859. 



question, it will be found considerably to the south of the equator, in 3° of 

 south latitude. 



Mr. F. Galton, f.r.g.s. — I trust I may be excused if I draw a conclusion 

 adverse to the suggestion of some geographers upon the manner in which the 

 discoveries before us affect the probability of Kilimanjaro and Kenia being of 

 that remarkable height which the German missionaries, Messrs. Krapf, 

 Rebmann, and Erhhardt, have assigned to them. It must be recollected that 

 in the view of these gentlemen Kilimanjaro and Kenia had 7w southern pro- 

 longations ; they were in fact the southern abutments of a mountainous district, 

 from whose feet an elevated plateau extended southwards with hardly a hill 

 upon its face, but having a watershed on either hand. The only exception to 

 this uniformity of surface consisted in the Nqu Mountains, which Mr. Erhhardt 

 had seen from the neighbourhood of Mboa-Maji, and which Captains Burton 

 and Speke have crossed and described. It must further be recollected that the 

 missionaries' assertion of an elevated plateau running parallel to the coast with 

 an interior waterparting, was opposed to an opinion current among geographers 

 of that day. 



Now, Captains Burton and Speke have, as you well know, made two expedi- 

 tions ; the one in the latitude of Kilimanjaro, up the Pangani river, where 

 they came among hills and experienced mists and chilly rains and a climate 

 that was literally unendurable to the natives who had accompanied them from 

 the heated coast. Here, then, were signs of a mountainous country, and 

 although circumstances prevented them from penetrating far enough to be able 

 to give any positive testimony, or even to collect information upon Kiliman- 

 jaro, I gather from Captain Burton's writings that their opinion was in no way 

 opposed to the statements of the missionaries. 



The second journey of Captains Burton and Speke was the present one. 

 They started from the coast two hundred miles south of Kilimanjaro, exactly 

 where the missionaries had assured them they would find no hills at all, except 

 the before-mentioned one of Nqu, and that, precisely, was the only hill they 

 found. 



I therefore maintain that Captains Burton and Speke's discoveries, so far as 

 they affect in any way the question of these mountains, lend considerable weight 

 to the testimony of the missionaries ; and I consider that we are even less 

 justified now than we were before in denying the probability of Kilimanjaro 

 and Kenia being capped with snow. I fear this much vexed question must 

 remain at rest until some traveller can give us positive testimony. 



Consul M'Leod. — As every thing connected with that inland sea must be 

 interesting, I would venture to state what I have already communicated to the 

 Government, that, when at Mozambique, I learned from the Arabs that the 

 river Conducia, which discharges itself into the north-west end of the harbour 

 of Mozambique, takes its rise in a lake, which, in the rainy season, communi- 

 cates with an inland sea, and that the sea takes three days to cross. 



Mr. M'Queen. — That lake that you allude to is the Lake Maravi. 



The President. — ^In endeavouring to give to the Society a general view of 

 the efforts of our adventurous and gallant friends, I held it of some importance 

 to call your attention to the fact, that whilst these supposed snowy mountains 

 must be 22,500 feet high, if they really existed, under the equator, at all 

 events they had no southern lofty prolongation ; that in the parallel of Zanzibar 

 the coast chain was low, and thus resembled the other coast ridges that sub- 

 tend the interior of Southern Africa. The height of loftier mountains to the 

 north, as Mr. Galton has properly stated to you, is still a matter for inquiry. 



Leaving this point, however, to be determined by future explorations, let us 

 advert alone to what our gallant countrymen have determined, and let us not 

 mix up their exploits with our theories. The question now before us is, what 



