The RuAvenzori Range. 



that is, from west to east. But at the same time, either owing to our 

 knowledge of the existence of snowy peaks in that part of east equatorial 

 Africa, or else because of the generally admitted principle that the larger 

 rivers rise in the highest mountains, (-') those moderate undulations of the land 

 were without more ado transformed to a group of gigantic highlands, ^^'e thus 

 see how, despite their trend, quite different from the equatorial, the two groups 

 of Kilimanjaro-Kenia and Kuwenzori, thanks to their great elevation, came to 

 form part of the Mountains of the Moon. ("-'') To which of the two should the 

 preference l>e given 1 



Respecting Kilimanjaro-Kenia, we have to consider a fact of vast 

 geological and hydrographic importance. The narrow strip of seaboard along 

 the Indian Ocean, where prevail the Jurassic limestones and argillaceous schists, 

 is followed westwards by a .chain of isolated crystalline heights commonly 

 designated by the name of the East African Schistose Mountains. "West of 

 this system we enter a zone highly remarkable for its great geological 

 disturbances. It is distinguished above all by the great East African Rift 

 Valley, a Aast line of fissure running in the direction of the meridian, and 

 extending for 40° of latitude from the Asphaltites Lake (Dead Se;i) all the Avay 

 to Ugogo. The trough on the east side is to be regarded as a secondary rift, 

 above which rise Mounts Meru, Kilimanjaro, and prol»al>ly also Kenia. The 

 whole of this district west of the East African Schistose system sends none of 

 its running waters either directly or indirectly to the Indian Ocean. In other 

 words, it is essentially a landlocked continental region. (-") Thus, while the 

 east slope of the Schistose Mountains is traversed by streams tributary to the 

 Indian Ocean, the few rivers of the west slope find no other outlet l>ut the 

 chain of lakelets Avhich follow in the direction from north to south along the 

 meridian rift. The aforesaid Kilimanjaro-Kenia group stands therefore 

 absolutely outside the Lake Victoria and Somerset Nile basins. (-'^) 



It is otherwise with Ruwenzori, which, by its east watershed not only 

 belongs to the basin of the Somerset Nile and of the region north-east of Lake 

 Albert Edward, but also, by its south and west slopes, to the 1)asin of the same 

 Lake AUiort Edward, the Semliki and Lake Albert. Hence, if, as is probable, 

 there exists any orographic, if not geological, link between Ruwenzori and the 

 group of Virunga Mountains, which rise to the south and south-west of Lake 

 Albert Edward to an altitude of 13,000 feet, the identification of this highland 

 system with the Mountains of the Moon would be all the more confirmed. 

 This system is, in fact, the only one in the whole of equatorial Africa that 

 completely satisfies all the conditions specified in Ptolemy's Geography, not 

 even altogether excepting that of the general trend, which is precisely 



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