In the Volcanic Region 149 



this work did not cause much trouble and hindered our advance 

 but little. A good many elephant trails were seen right up to 

 the vegetation limit of 2,700 metres. Keeping a moderate 

 climbing pace, and striding over bare lava at the finish, we 

 reached the crater in two hours. This ascent was the first under- 

 taken from the southern side, whilst Lieutenant Schwartz, who 

 was appointed to the German Congo Boundary Expedition, 

 made his first ascent from the eastern side in 1902. 



Namlagira is a flat volcanic peak with a very gentle slope 

 traversed by broad longitudinal and latitudinal rifts and, like 

 Ninagongo, possesses a very typical broad explosive crater. The 

 latter, in fact, is larger than the Graf Gotzen crater, the diameter, 

 according to Kirschstein's measurements, being close on two kilo- 

 metres ! Although we had already received many memorable 

 impressions of the grandeur of the African volcanic world, we 

 were, nevertheless, taken aback at the spectacle of this colossal 

 crater. Its walls fall almost vertically to the depths, and end 

 in a kind of terrace which encircles the crater and which in its 

 eastern part has a ledge projecting towards the centre. This is 

 the remainder of an old and much riven crater-floor which was 

 once blown up by an exceedingly violent eruption. The terrace 

 falls away steeply to the actual floor, which is perfectly level like 

 that of the Graf Gotzen crater. Smoke of a sulphur-yellow and 

 chalky-white colour issues from a large number of cracks and 

 fissures. Terraces and crater-floor are formed of congealed lava, 

 and are covered, in places, with still smoking layers of cinders 

 and lapilli. These spring from the more recent outbreaks of 

 Namlagira, not from the crater proper, but, as Kirschstein will 

 prove later on, from an eruptive flue blasted up through the 

 terrace projection just mentioned. 



We had gone without food since six o'clock in the morning, 

 and our hungry stomachs were insistently demanding their rights. 

 So at four o'clock in the afternoon we began the descent over 

 smooth lava, and before very long we found a favourable spot 

 in the vicinity of a small stream. We encountered some diffi- 

 culty in driving our tent pegs into the cracks in the lava, and 



