Reach the Summit of Pangei'ango. 2 1 9 



cone of regular form, the slope of wlilcli was between 25 and 30 

 degrees. The cool air of these elevated regions now began 

 to make itself felt, while our sensations bodily testified to the 

 northern character of the vegetation around us. The tree- 

 ferns indeed continued to grow up to the very highest point, 

 but long ere reaching the summit they ceased to be found 

 among the gigantic forest-pillars of the Liquid-amhar, but grew 

 between dwarfish, knotted, stunted trees, whose trunks were 

 overrun with a bright green moss, while from the branches 

 hung festoons of greyish-green beard-moss {Tillanchia usnioides), 

 greatly resembling hair. The trees, instead of stretching 

 out their brown limbs to the air and light above, left them 

 to droop sidlenly to the ground, turning themselves, as though 

 in pain, away from the rude wind which swept through 

 their branches, and, as it were, seeking for warmth and sus- 

 tenance from mother Earth alone. All the plants here 

 showed a tendency to become creepers, as also to a circum- 

 scribed growth and extent of foliage, as well as uniformity of 

 species. By 3 p.m. the whole party, including a rear-guard 

 of irregular naturalists and sharp-shooters, had finally reached 

 the summit of the mountain. When Dr. Junghuhn, the first 

 man who trod this solitude, made the earliest ascent of this 

 mountain in 1839, he found not a trace of a human step, 

 and had painfully to make his way by rhinoceros-paths, be- 

 neath a thick overhanging canopy of leaves, and through 

 dense underwood. Thus he finally succeeded in forcing a 

 passage through the forest, till he emerged upon a naked patch 



