io6 CLIMBING IN RUWENZORI 



the party proposed to reach the highest peaks from 

 the Mubuku Valley, they would probably find it 

 necessary to cross the range by the low pass to the 

 south of Kiyanja, and skirt the base of that moun- 

 tain on the Semliki side, and that was exactly the 

 route that the Duke's party followed. 



Now that the peaks and glaciers of Ruwenzori 

 have been explored and named (some of them for 

 the third and fourth time), it is unlikely that the 

 range will often be visited. Tourists, who go to 

 Lake Victoria, will think twice before they venture 

 on a three weeks' march across country ; and if that 

 be not enough, the atrocious climate, and the 

 chance of seeing nothing when you get there, will 

 keep away all but the most enthusiastic and de- 

 termined mountaineers. Those climbers to whom 

 the comforts of the club-hut or of the mountain 

 hotel are a necessity will certainly be well advised 

 to give a wide berth to Ruwenzori. Instead of 

 creeping stealthily downstairs in the small hours to 

 drink hot coffee, and start by lantern-light with 

 well-laden guides over dry rocks or snow, in 

 Ruwenzori you must rouse up your slumbering 

 boys, coax a reluctant fire into sufficient life to thaw 

 your unpalatable food, and then, laden with your 

 various impedimenta, plunge into a morass, where 

 you are wet through before you have gone 50 yards. 

 I have often wondered in the Alps why one is fool 

 enough to go stumbling over moraines by candle- 

 light at one o'clock in the morning ; but one goes on 

 doing it, and hopes to continue doing it for many 



