184 RUAYEXZOEI AND ITS SNOWS 



without more elaliorate pre[)arations than we had made in the way of ropes 

 and axes, so we returned for a while to IJuamha camp to rest and botanise. 



Next day, instead of attempting the ascent by way of the JNIubuko 

 glacier, we followed probably the same route as Mr. Moore, and tried to 

 ascend the mountain more or less midway between the ]\Iubuko glacier 

 and the highest jjeak — the peak which tlie natives call Kiyanja. In this 

 Avav, after difficulties of the most exhausting nature and in the middle 

 of a snowstorm, we reached an altitude of 14,828 feet,* and here we were 

 obliged to stoj). .My two Eluropean companions (Doggett and Vale) were 

 fairly exhausted with the cold, and perhaps with a touch of mountain 

 sickness. Still more serious, our native l>akonjo guides and our Swaliili 

 porters were positively ill with the cold, in spite of our having clothed 

 them in warm jerseys, coats, and blankets. The condition of some of the 

 natives, in fact, was so bad that I am sorry to say one of them eventually 

 died of pneumonia, and all were so ill that I dared not sto]) any longer 

 at this altitude under such inclement conditions. We therefore returned 

 once more to camp. 



The next attenijit we maile at an ascent was again in tlu^ diicction 

 of the ^lulniko glaciei'. We were confronted here by a wall of rock about 

 seven feet in height, wiiich at first seemed difficult to ascend, mitil the' 

 idea occurred to me of using my very tall Sudanese orderly as a Imman 

 ladder. Doggett mounted on his slinuldiT.-, and managed to scramble 

 over the ledge above. He then fastened a rope on boulders, and we each 

 dragged ourselves up. After this we liad to pass through a natural tunnel 

 in the rock, which had lieen bored by a stream flowing from the glacier. 

 As the tunnel was partly tilled up by the stream in question, which was 

 icv cold, this ])assage was very disagreeable. By one means or another 

 we reached an altitude of 13,534 feet f on this glacier, and here our furthei- 

 ]»rogress was barred by walls of ice at least fifty feet in height, and 

 absolutely precipitous. We did a good deal of photographing here, hut 

 on our descent Doggett became so ill from the cold and the wetting with 

 the icy water, that we were obliged to return to our permanent can;p. 

 The next day I made another abortive attem])t to ascend the mountain, 

 but illness was beginning to tell on all my companions, black and white, 

 and I was afraid, if I did not descend to a warmer climate, there would 

 be no one but myself left to tell the tale. Pneumonia seemed to afflict 

 many of the men, and the disease made such ra[)id progress that the patient 

 was almost beyond recovery before attempts could be made to arrest the 

 malady. In this wav we lo^t the best of our native guides, to my very 

 great regret, and two of our Swahili porters. For myself, I can only say 



* Water boiled at 186'6° Fain. ; tem]ierature, 40°. 

 t Water boiled at IHSo" Vahv. ; temperature, 37°. 



