WE SEE THE HIGHEST PEAKS 99 



feet of steep but easy rocks, we came on to a small 

 glacier,* bare and dry in its lower part, but covered 

 with an increasing depth of snow as we went higher. 

 A black mass before us loomed hupe throueh the 

 fog, and seven hours after leaving camp we stood 

 on the peak, which seems from below to be the 

 summit of Kiyanja (see illustration, p. 84). We 

 built a small cairn, and, to keep ourselves warm, 

 hurled huge boulders down the steep eastern face 

 of the mountain into the Mubuku Valley. It is an 

 attractive amusement, but not one to be recom- 

 mended in regions more populous than Ruwenzori. 



We waited as long as it was safe to do, if we 

 were to get back to camp that night, and were just 

 preparing to descend when a warm slant of sunshine 

 pierced the fog, the clouds boiled up from below, 

 and we looked right down the Mubuku Valley, and 

 saw the river winding away over the yellow plain 

 of Ruisamba and the blue hills beyond. It was 

 like one of the rare glimpses that one gets from the 

 Alps of the Lombard Plain, but it lasted only for 

 a moment before it was blotted out again. Then 

 there came a clearing on the other side, towards 

 the north and west, and we saw that we had missed 

 the real top of our mountain f (15,988 feet), which 

 rose perhaps 150 feet higher than the point that we 

 had reached, and was connected with ours by an 

 arete of snow. It was disappointing to have missed 

 it, but it was too late then to go on further. 



* King Edward Glacier. t King Edward Peak. 



7—2 



