354 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS IN 1890. 



tion toward the south. From the Volta, which 

 is surrounded by low hills, a great table-land ex- 

 tends from about 1,000 metres to Nauri, which 

 lifts itself to a height of 1,800 metres southeast 

 of Wagadugu. This mountain, the highest met 

 with, is divided from the range of Garnbaga by 

 the valley of the eastern or White Volta, which 

 rises farther east in Bussang. To the south the 

 plateau descends quite rapidly to the Volta, the 

 valley of which lies at a height of about 200 

 metres. Farther westward, the Black Volta has 

 forced its way through the Fugula, 800 metres 

 high, and is turned from a southerly to an easterly 

 direction. Single peaks rise between the Volta 

 and the Comoe. According to these data, the 

 basin of the Niger is much smaller than by 

 former estimates ; for by far the greater portion 

 of the region inclosed by its great bend is drained 

 by the Comoe and the Volta. 



Politically the journey was of great impor- 

 tance. Treaties were made with the kingdoms of 

 Tieba, Kong, and Bonduku, and with smaller 

 states, bringing them under French influence, so 

 that the French protectorate now extends from 

 the Senegal to the Ivory Coast, and opens a vast 

 region to French commerce. Further, it gives 

 an outlook toward a possible colonial empire for 

 France in West Africa when a connection shall 

 have been established between Algiers and the 

 Niger country. 



Dr. Hans Meyer, whose ascents of Mount 

 Kilimanjaro in 1887 and 1888 were not com- 

 pletely successful, since he failed to reach the 

 summit, made another ascent in the autumn of 

 1889 and reached the extreme crest of Kibo and 

 the peaks of Mawenzi. He went to Marangu, ac- 

 companied by an experienced mountain climber, 

 Ludwig Purtscheller, and a caravan of some sixty 

 men with a large supply of camp equipments and 

 food, and the force well organized for carrying 

 regular supplies to the upper regions. Leaving 

 the main portion of the caravan in camp at 

 Marangu, in care of the young prince Mareale, 

 whom he describes as the model of a prince, 

 upright, frank, amiable, and modest, Dr. Meyer 

 ascended with Herr Purtscheller and eight picked 

 men through the primeval forest to a stream 

 beyond, at an altitude of 9,200 feet. Leaving a 

 camp there and climbing to the height of 14,270 

 feet, they prepared for the ascent to the summit, 

 retaining from among their attendants only a 

 Pangani negro, whose endurance and fidelity con- 

 tributed largely to their success. Kibo, crowned 

 with ice, rose 5.000 feet higher. A large rib of 

 lava jutting to the southeast, and forming the 

 southern boundary of the deepest of the eroded 

 ravines on that side of the mountain, was chosen 

 as the place of ascent, the plan being to climb 

 up this lava ridge to the snow line, begin from 

 its upper end the scramble over the mantle of 

 ice, and reach by the shortest way the peak at 

 the south of the mountain, which appeared to be 

 the highest point. 



This programme was carried out by means of 

 a difficult march, with the aid of ice axes and 

 alpine rope. It was found that there was no 

 snow on Kibo. but what had apppeared as such 

 from below was the eroded surface of the ice cap 

 which covered the lava slopes of the ancient 

 volcano with a thickness of from 200 to 230 feet. 

 Dr. Meyer's report continues : 



Since there can exist no real reservoir for nevS, 

 owing to the symmetrical slopes of the truncated cone 

 that Kibo forms, the compacted sheet of ice which 

 covers the whole of the upper portion of the mount- 

 ain has nothing in common with the glacier forma- 

 tions of our Alps. The upper edge of the mountain 

 affords a basis where the falling snow can accumulate. 

 But it is only where the covering of ice is intersected 

 by fissures and crevasses, and sends out tongues of 

 ice whether in consequence of the steep incline of 

 the outer mantle of the cone, or else because of the 

 existence of ravines that these detached portions 

 gain the appearance of a genuine glacier. In such 

 cases the melting water HOAVS out of their ends as 

 running brooks. We now made our way across the 

 crevasses of one of these real glaciers, the same that 

 projects downward into the valley which we had 

 traversed in the early morning, and took a rest under 

 the shadow of an extremely steep protuberance of the 

 ice wall at an altitude of 19,000 feet. . . . 



A few more hasty steps in the most eager antici- 

 pation, and then the secret of Kibo lay unveiled before 

 us. Taking in the whole of upper Kibo, the precipitous 

 walls of a gigantic crater yawned beneath us. The 

 first glance, however, told us that the most lofty eleva- 

 tion of Kibo lay to our left, on the southern brim of 

 the crater, and consisted of three pinnacles of rock 

 rising a few feet above the southern slopes of the 

 mantle of ice. . . . We first reached the summit on the 

 6th of October. ... An hour and a half's further 

 ascent brought us to the foot of the three highest 

 pinnacles, which we calmly and systematically climbed 

 one after another. Although the state of the atmos- 

 phere and the physical strain of exertion remained 

 the same as on the previous ascent, yet this time we 

 felt far less exhausted, because our condition morally 

 was so much more favorable. The central pinnacle 

 reached a height of about 19,700 feet, overtopping the 

 others by 50 or 60 feet. I was the first to tread, at 

 half-past ten in the morning, the culminating peak. 

 I planted a small German flag, which 1 had Brought 

 with me in my knapsack, upon the ragged lava sum- 

 mit and christened this, the loftiest spot in Africa, 

 Kaiser Wilhelm's Peak. 



Dr. Meyer describes the great crater of Kibo 

 as in diameter about 6,500 feet, and sinking to 

 600 feet of depth. In the northern half the lava 

 is covered with terraces of ice forming blue and 

 white galleries of varying steepness. A rounded 

 cone of eruption, partly covered with ice, rises 

 in the north portion of the crater to a height of 

 about 500 feet. The melting water flows off 

 through a wide cleft in the western side, and the 

 ice on the western part of the crater and the 

 inner walls issues in the form of a glacier. The 

 length of this glacier is over a mile and a 

 half, the greater part lying inside the cra- 

 ter; its lower termination is at a height of 

 17,900 feet. The central peak of Mawenzi, 

 the eastern summit of Kilimanjaro, was reached 

 by three separate ascents. The lava rock has 

 been so denuded as to cover the surface with a 

 jagged mass of walls and crags. On the west it 

 slopes gradually to the elevated saddle stretching 

 over to Kibo ; on the east it descends from an 

 altitude of about 17.050 feet, with dizzy abrupt- 

 ness for some 6,500 feet, into a " huge ravined 

 caldron of erosion, from which it continues 

 down to the level of the plain, in far-reaching 

 and symmetrical slopes, for another 8,200 feet." 

 The lie of the lava strata and the fissures indi- 

 cate that the former crater of Mawenzi lay south- 

 east of the present summit ; and its structure 

 points to its having been, in its original form, 

 as high if not considerably higher than the much 

 more recent and better preserved Kibo. Several 



