Chapter X. 



specimens from the mud on the hunks. Laurent Petigax and 

 Broclierel returned later to the lake and were ahle to confirm 

 the ohservation that it has Jiornially no emissaries. 



Wliile the memhers of the expedition were thus occupied at 

 Ibanda, the Duke of the Abruzzi was completing the exploration 

 of the mountaitis. He had left Bujongolo on the morning of 

 the i3th of Jidy with the guides Joseph Petigax, Oilier, a native 

 soldier, a boy, and seventeen native porters including the guide, 

 a fine old man of fifty years. At the Freshfield Pass he was 

 j(»ined by Sella and Botta, and they proceeded together as far 

 as Camp III at the foot of the western slopes of Mt. Baker. 



The valley of tlie lakes, which they had so often traversed 

 in rain and fog, now, on this fine clear day, seemed to ofier 

 an entirely new prospect. Tlie sun, however, seems almost to 

 strike a false note in the dense and melancholy forest of senecios. 

 The helichrysums seem like skeleton flowers, and the scene is 

 grim, sail, lifeless and brooded over by an oppressive silence. 



On the follow ini»- dav, after a clear sunrise, the air aerain 

 greM' dark with mists. They climbed to the Scott Elliot Pass 

 by tlie well-known way and set forth down along the gully 

 towards the Bujuku Valley. Those who went ahead were in 

 incessant danger of being hit l)y tlie stones which the numerous 

 party of natives kept rolling down, in spite of all precautions. 



From the f )ot of the gully, in a very short space of time, 

 after crossing the grotesque forest of senecio mingled with 

 chmips of everlasting flowers, and interrupted at one point 

 })y a brief marshy tract covered with reeds, they reached 

 the shoi-es of Lake I)ujuku (12,855 feet), a splendid sheet 

 of calm watei- upon which they saw a few duek. The 

 view of th<' peaks of Mt. Stanley and Mt. Baker towering above 

 them with tlieir grim [M-ecipices was, bevond all comparison, 



