ETHNOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM FROM 

 KILIMA-NJARO, EAST AFRICA. 



By Dr. W. L. Abbott. 



A little south of the equator, aud about 175 miles from the coast of 

 East Africa, rises the si)leTidicl mountain Kilima-iSTjaro. It covers an 

 area as great as the Bernese Oberland, and its cratered peak, Kibo, is 

 over 20,000 feet in height, capped with glaciers and eternal snows. 



For centuries there had been reports among the coast people of a 

 great snow-covered mountain in the interior, but it was not until 1849, 

 when Krapf, a missionary, first saw Kilima-Njaro, that the Suaheli 

 statements were verified. 



The nearest port on the coast is Mombasa, now the headquarters of 

 the British East African Company. The country between is an open 

 plain and scrub-covered desert, excepting where the Teita Hills rise, 

 about 100 miles from the coast, to a height of 3,000 feet. In the plain, 

 close to its southeastern corner, lies the forest arcadia of Taveta, the 

 porters' paradise, offering a cool and shady resting-place after the 

 scorching jourjiey from Mombasa. 



The mountain is volcanic, with two cones, Kibo and Kimawenzi. The 

 former is the highest, 20,100 feet, and contains a huge crater 2,000 meters 

 in diameter and 200 meters deep. A secondary cone rises from the floor 

 of the crater, and the whole is covered with an ice-cap of glacier. Kima- 

 wenzi is a black dome of rotten lava, about 700 meters lower, and is 

 rarely completely snow-covered. A connecting ridge about 15,000 feet 

 in height joins the two peaks, which are situated about eight miles 

 ai)art. The axis of the mountain lies east and west, 



Xone of the early explorers gained any considerable elevation. 

 Charles New reached nearly 11,000 feet in 1872. Joseph Thomson 

 reached about 8,500 feet; then H. H. Johnston, in 1884, claimed to have 

 reached about 1<),000 ; Count Teleki, in 1887, did reach this altitude. Im- 

 mediately after Dr. Hans Meyer, of Leipzig, accompanied by Baron von 

 Eberstein, got to the foot of the glacial ice-cap, but they were unable to 

 ascend its icy precipices. Last year Lieut, Ehlers and the writer 

 attempted the north face of Kibo ; Ehlers gained the northwest corner 



without seeing any crater, however, and the writer broke down at 



;5si 



