184. RUWENZORI AND ITS SNOWS 



without more elaborate preparations than we had made in the way of ropes 

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



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

 glacier, we followed probably the same route as Mr. I\Ioore, and tried to 

 ascend the mountain more or less midway between the Mubuko glacier 

 and the highest })eak — the peak which the natives call Kiyanja. In this 

 wav, after difiticulties of the most exhausting nature and in the middle 

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

 oblio-ed to stop. ^ly two European companions (Doggett and Vale) were 

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

 sickness. Still more serious, our native Bakonjo guides and our Swahili 

 porters w'ere 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 stop any longer 

 at this altitude under such inclement conditions. We therefore returned 

 once more to camp. 



The next attempt we made at an ascent was again in the direction 

 of the Mubuko glacier. We were confronted here by a wall of rock about 

 seven feet in height, which at first seemed difficult to ascend, until the 

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

 ladder. Doggett mounted on his shoulders, and managed to scramble 

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

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

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

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

 icv cold, this passage was very disagreeable. By one means or another 

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

 progress was barred by walls of ice at least fifty feet in height, and 

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

 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 camp. 

 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 way we lost 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° Fahr. ; tenii)erature, 40". 

 t Water boiled at 188T)° Fahr. ; temiierature, 37". 



