2IO In the Heart of Africa 



As we wished to commence the march to the Congo on the 

 1st of April from Irumu, and had meanwhile to get through 

 an extensive programme, time began to press. Lieutenant von 

 Wiese and I, therefore, had to leave the further ascent of the 

 mountain, as well as the biological investigations, to the botanist 

 and the zoologist alone, or the unfavourable climatic conditions 

 prevailing might have still further delayed us. After touching 

 at Lake Albert, I was specially keen on visiting Kilo, the 

 auriferous, so we bade good-bye to our fellow-travellers and 

 settled to meet again at Irumu at the end of March. 



Mildbraed reports as follows on the advance through the 

 valley of the Butagu : 



"On the morning of the nth of February, Schubotz and I 

 separated from the Duke and Lieutenant von Wiese, accompanied 

 by their best wishes, which savoured somewhat of sarcasm, con- 

 sidering the atrocious weather of the past few days. Things 

 looked far from encouraging when we set out; it was a dismal, 

 gloomy day, but, at least, it was not raining. We entered the 

 valley of the Butagu, possibly the largest stream on the western 

 side of the mountain, and which bears the glacial waters of the 

 highest snow mountains in the group,* to the Semliki. We 

 pursued almost the identical route that Stuhlmann took in June, 

 1 89 1. It leads along the Butagu valley at a considerable 

 elevation above the brook, which can only now and then be 

 descried, up and down over the small streams which pour from 

 the sides of the mountains situated to the north of the main 

 valley. 



" Elephant grass (Pennisetum cf. Benthami), with stalks the 

 thickness of a man's thumb, and four to five metres high, 

 bordered the first stages of the narrow path. It is extremely 

 unpleasant to march through matete of this description, for the 

 massive stalks frequently choke the way and have to be hewn 



* The Duke d'Abruzzi assumes that the waters of the glaciers to the "west of the 

 Ludwig of Savoy, the Baker, the Stanley, the main portion of the Speke glaciers and 

 of the Emin " collect in the Butagu ; the two last mountains, however, do not come 

 into consideration. The stream denoted in the plan of the Ruwenzori chain by a 

 dotted line does not flow into the Butagu. 



