WE SET OUT FOR THE SNOWS 83 



successful. In January, 1906, Herr Grauer and a 

 party of missionaries, as has been already stated, 

 reached the summit of one of the ridges, which they 

 erroneously thought to be the watershed of the range, 

 at a height of 14,813 feet.* At the end of the same 

 month R. B. Woosnam, during the course of a bird- 

 collecting excursion, climbed alone to Herr Grauer's 

 highest point. 



It was not until the latter half of February — that 

 is, some time after the beginning of the rainy 

 season — that we were able to make an excursion 

 up the valley. The object of the expedition was 

 primarily to collect specimens ; Woosnam and Dent 

 were in quest of birds and mammals, and I went to 

 collect plants, but we had at the back of our minds 

 the idea of getting up something if an opportunity 

 should occur, and we accordingly took with us all 

 the apparatus that we could collect. This consisted 

 of about 25 feet of Alpine rope and a pair of 

 crampons, which we had obtained from Herr Grauer, 

 and an old ice-axe, which Mr. Freshfield had left 

 behind him at Toro ; not a very complete equip- 

 ment for attacking a group of unknown mountains. 

 The British Museum had not considered the remote 

 possibility of exploration in fitting out the Ruwenzori 

 Expedition, and I had left England in too much of 

 a hurry to be able to get more than the bare 

 necessaries of travel. The lack of a light tent, that 



* Corrected lieight, determined by H.R.H. the Duke of 

 the Abruzzi. 



6—2 



