A SOURCE OF THE NILE 95 



The first expedition that we made from Bujongolo 

 was to the head of the Mubuku glacier, in which we 

 followed, with some few variations, the route taken 

 by Herr Grauer's party a month earlier. A mile or 

 more of ploughing through swamp took us to the 

 end of the level terrace, beyond which we mounted 

 at first over an old moraine covered with a forest of 

 senecios, and then over smooth, glacier-worn rocks 

 coated with moss and oozing with water, and up 

 through a curious tunnel, formed by a huge block 

 jammed across a gully, to the foot of the glacier 

 (13,682 feet). We had often noticed far down in 

 the valley below that there was no great difference 

 in the volume of the Mubuku from morning to 

 evening, as there is in the glacier-fed streams of 

 Europe, and the reason was apparent when we 

 came to the Mubuku glacier. Both early and late 

 there was never more than the merest trickle of 

 water flowing from this glacier. The reason, which 

 has been pointed out by Mr. Freshfield,* is that in 

 Africa, as in other tropical and subtropical regions, 

 notably the Sikkim Himalayas, the glaciers lose 

 most of their substance by evaporation. It was 

 pleasant to think that a part of that tiny stream 

 would perhaps find its way into the great river, 

 which goes swirling past the temple of Abu Simbel 

 and carries fatness to the fields of Egypt. We 

 scrambled up a few hundred feet of loose and rotten 

 rocks, more dangerous than difficult, and then took 

 * Alpine J oumaly vol. xxiii., p. 48. 



