The Rnwenzori I\ange. 



('■•) "His (PtoU'iiiv's) latitudes and longitudes are clearly worthless, except in so far as 

 the former represent tlie broad fact that these lakes, and therefore the sources of the Nile, 

 were actually situated south of the equator." So Bunbuey in the (juoted work, Vol. II, 

 pp. 614-15. 



Q-') Cape Aroniata is usually identified with Cape Gxar.iaftd. Henky Schlichter {Proc. 

 of the Royal Geographical Society, 1891, p. 529), places it much farther south, and identifies 

 it with Ras Astrad (lat. 4° 30' N.). Cape Rhaptum is placed by Ptolemy at one and a-half 

 degree from the connnercial emporium of Rhapta in the direction of the south. Touching its 

 identity with any of the coast headlands in that part of Africa, geographers are not quite of 

 accord. Miiller places it at Ras Puna, Berlioux and Sclilichter at Ras Mambamlu. Nor is 

 it easy to indicate the position of the commercial emporium of Rluipta, since it did not lie on 

 the coast, but somewliat inland. Still, as the River Rliaptus of Ptolemy's Geography is most 

 probably identical with the Pangani, not a few geographers place Rhapta on the lower course 

 of that river. Bunbury {op. cit., p. 454), says tliat Rhapta stood at the head of the bay 

 opposite Zanzibar, not far from Bagamoyo. 



(""•) Geogr., Book I, chap. 9. 



('^) Admitting that Kluipta corresponded to some place on the lower course of the 

 Pangani, Ptolemy's latitude 7° S. would differ liy 1" 30' from the actual, the mouth of the 

 Pangani being at 5" 30'. If we locate Rhajita with Bunbury in the neighbourhood of 

 Bagamoyo, tlie agreement will be almost perfect. In any case, the nearly correct description 

 of tlie eastern seaboard is easily explained when ^^e remember that, as we know from the 

 Periplus Maris Ertilhraei and from the language of Ptolemy himself, the coastlands north 

 of Rhapta were at that time very well known. 



("") See the foregoing note. 



(i") Strabo, G^-o^?'., Book XVII, chap. 1, 1 ; 'Bv.^G-e.-R, Die geographischen Fragmenfe des- 

 Eratosthenes, Vol. I, p. 302 sq. 



P') Stanley, In Darkest Africa, Vol. II, p. 270. 



(-') Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1891, p. 550. 



(■-) H. Schlichter ni Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1891, p. 534. 



(-•') Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, Vol. II. 



(-^) We know that the first notions regarding these gigantic mountains of East Africa 

 date from the travels of the missionaries Krapf and Rebmann (1848-1S51). 



("^) The Monies Alrapei of European Sarmatia may serve as an instance. 



('-") Bunbury argues much to the same effect. " The precision with which he determines 

 the position and limits of a range of mountains, concerning which he had no real knowledge, 

 and which had no existence in fact, finds a parallel in that of the Hyperborean Mountains in 

 European Sarmatia ; and there seems no doubt that the process by which Ptolemy arrived at 

 liis conclusion was much the same in both cases. In this instance lie had learned the existence 

 of two lakes, wliich he believed to be the sources of the Nile ; he had learnt also the existence 

 of a range of mountains, some of which were so lofty as to be covered with snow, though 

 situated under tlie equator; lie then at once assumed that the lakes were fed by the snows of 

 the mountains, and having no real idea of tlie ])ositioii of these last, drew them on liis map in 

 a straiglit line, to the south of tlie lakes, extending far enough to the east and west, to supply, 

 as he conceived, the necessary drainage." See History of Ancient Geography, Vol. II, 

 p. 61(5. It is needless to observe that tlie learned historian does not admit with Cooley the 



299 



