Chapter I. 



vast mountain covered with snow. Following its form downward, 

 I became struck with the deep blue-black colour of its base, and 

 wondered if it portended another tornado ; tlien, as the sight 

 descended to the ga}) l)etween the eastern and western plateaux, 

 T became for the first time conscious that what I gazed upon was 

 not the image or semblance of a vast momitain, but the solid 

 substance of a real one, with its summit covered with snow." 



"E-uwenzori" is the one among many native names by which, 

 in Stanley's opinion, the mountain is most widely known in the 

 surrounding region. 



Of all the explorers who in the preceding twenty years had 

 travelled through these regions and sailed upon the waters of 

 the lakes at the foot of the chain, not one had suspected the 

 near presence of vast tracts of eternal ice and snow hidden from 

 all eyes in the impenetrable cloak of cloud and mist. 



In 1864, Sir Samuel Baker liad given the name of "Blue 

 Mountains" to the vast shapes faintly seen looming through the 

 mists of the plain to the south of the Albert Nyanza. He did 

 not. however, form any adequate conception of their real 

 |)i-o])ortions. 



Stanley liimst*lf, in tlie December of 1875, when actually 

 encamped upon the eastern slopes of the chain, relates, but 

 without conunent, the descriptions given by the natives of the 

 shining white coloni- and intense cold of peaks which he could 

 not see but which were said to be towering above him. 



Sir Hariv .lohiistou iiiciitions certain private letters written 

 in 1876 by llomolo Gessi during his first complete exploration of 

 the shores of the Albert Nyanza. Tn these letters mention is 

 made of a strange vision which the writer saw in the skv, as if 

 of mountains covered with snow. Possibly he ascril)ed this 

 vision to an hallucination. The fact remains that the discovery 



