io2 THE TANGANYIKA PROBLEM. 



the rather interesting fact that it lies as low as 13,500 ft., 

 had not been ascertained. It was, moreover, not known 

 whether there were glaciers on the range, Stuhlmann 

 had expressly doubted it ; and owing to a misapprehension 

 under which Sir Harry Johnston persistently labours with 

 respect to his own later explorations in the district, 

 it is necessary, although wearisome, to repeat, that 

 prior to our visit only three explorers had made any 

 serious attempt upon the higher portions of the range. 

 Stairs had ascended to 10,000 ft. on the north-western 

 spurs ; Stuhlmann had reached 12,000 ft. on the west 

 of the range, while Scott Elliot had reached heights of 

 10,000 ft. and 12,000 ft. on both the eastern and western 

 flanks. My own exploration was made up the Mobuko 

 valley, terminating on the northern snow ridge of 

 Sitchwi, and occupied about three weeks. My highest 

 point reached on the top of this ridge was 14,900 ft. 

 After my return to Fort Jerry my colleague, Mr. 

 Fergusson, made a separate journey to the mountains and 

 reached a point nearer to the Mobuko glacier, 14,600 ft. 

 This was the point subsequently reached by Sir Harry 

 Johnston, who makes it 14,800 ft. Still later, Mr. Wilde, 

 an officer of the Uganda Protectorate, reached a point on 

 the same or an adjacent ridge of 14,900 ft., but, as he was 

 using an aneroid his altitude is probably rather over 

 estimated. As to the question of the height attained by 

 any of the other snow ridges and peaks of the range, I 

 came to the conclusion that there was nothing more than a 

 thousand feet higher than the point on which I was, either 

 to the north or to the south, and this would give an outside 

 altitude for the highest peaks of the range of, say, 16.500 ft. 

 Curiously enough, this is practically the same height which 

 all the older explorers ascribed to the range — namely, 



