EXTENT OF RUWENZORI 57 



mass of jagged rocks crinkled against the sky, and 

 overtopping all can just be seen two snow- clad peaks. 

 The highest group of peaks lies farther to the west, 

 and cannot be seen from Toro. 



While we are here, within sight, as it were, of 

 Ruwenzori, it may be a good opportunity to say 

 something about the history and geographical posi- 

 tion of what was until recently the least known 

 mountain region in Africa. Like many other places 

 of which but little is known, Ruwenzori has been 

 the subject of all manner of extravagant guesses and 

 ill-founded statements. The name, which is the mis- 

 spelt corruption of a native word of very doubtful 

 meaning, is entirely unknown by the people living 

 on any side of the range ; it is true that there is 

 a village near the north-east corner of Lake Albert 

 Edward called Runsororo, but this can hardly have 

 any connexion with the name of the mountains. 

 There is certainly a better historical authority and, 

 to my thinking, more of romance about ' The Moun- 

 tains of the Moon,' but Ruwenzori seems to have 

 been generally accepted, and, after all, it is not an 

 ill-sounding name. It is common to speak of it as 

 a mountain, but it is in reality a range of mountains 

 with at least five distinct groups of snow-peaks. It 

 has been described as the highest mountain in Africa, 

 at least 20,000 feet high, and with an extent of thirty 

 miles of glaciers ; its height, as determined by the 

 Duke of the Abruzzi, is slightly less than 1 7,000 feet, 

 so that both Kilimanjaro and Kenya are higher than 



