July 3, 1890] 



NA TURE 



227 



that can only be established by a series of careful obser- 

 vations. The same may be said as to the real nature of 

 the change of level ; is it permanent, or is it only of the 

 nature of an oscillation of level, as is the case with other 

 African lakes ? What, again, are the forces which have 

 been at work to produce these lake-chasms, and raise 

 the magnificent mountain-mass of Ruwenzori ? It may well 

 be that the same forces have been at the bottom of both 

 features, though possibly not in the precise fashion that 

 Mr. Stanley would seem to indicate. There is here, 

 evidently, a splendid field for geological research, and 

 science has therefore every reason to wish that all this 

 region may soon be restored to civilizing influences — 

 included, if possible, within the sphere of the British 

 East African Company. The volcanic mountain-mass of 

 Ruwenzori, with its many snow-covered peaks and deeply 

 scored sides, really covers a considerable area, with out- 



lying peaks, like Gordon Bennett and Mackinnon, east 

 and north-east. Both it and Lake Albert Edward are 

 surrounded by a range or escarpment, 5500 to 6500 feet 

 high. Stretching all the way south-east almost to the 

 borders of Lake Victoria Nyanza, the table-land is much 

 cut up by ravines, sometimes assuming a caiion-like 

 shape, and marked here and there with peaks like 

 Mfumbiro, 10,000 feet. On the Semliki itself, which 

 joins Lakes Albert and Albert Edward, we find a forest, 

 very similar to that on the Ituri, stretching some little 

 distance up the lower slopes of Ruwenzori. The follow- 

 ing description of the Semliki forest is worth quoting: — 



" About a mile from Mtarega the grassy strip to which 

 we had clung in preference was ended, the forest had 

 marched across the breadth of the Semliki Valley, and 

 had absorbed the Ruwenzori slopes to a height of seven 

 thousand feet above us, and whether we would or no, we 



Expedition winding up the Gorge o. Karya-muhoro. 



had to enter the doleful shades again. But then the per- 

 fection of a tropical forest was around us. It even eclipsed 

 the Ituri Valley in the variety of plants and general 

 sappiness. There were clumps of palms, there were 

 giant tree-ferns, there were wild bananas, and tall, stately 

 trees all coated with thick green moss from top to root, 

 impenetrable thickets of broad-leafed plants, and beads 

 of moisture everywhere, besides tiny rillets oozing out 

 every few yards from under the matted tangle of vivid 

 green and bedewed undergrowth. It was the best speci- 

 men of a tropical conservatory I had ever seen. It could 

 not be excelled if art had lent its aid to improve nature. 

 In every tree-fork and along the great horizontal branches 

 grew the loveliest ferns and lichens ; the elephant-ear by 

 the dozen, the orchids in close fellowship, and the bright 

 green moss had formed soft circular cushions about them, 

 and on almost every fibre there trembled a clear water- 



NO. 1079, VOL. 42] 



drop, and everything was bathed by a most humid atmo- 

 sphere. The reason of all this was not far to seek ; there 

 were three hot-water springs, the temperature of which 

 was 102°. This tract of forest was also in the cosiest fold 

 of the snow mountains, and whatever heat a hot sun 

 furnished on this place was long retained.'' 



Mr. Stanley may be said in this expedition to have put 

 the final touch to the definite delimitation of the Congo 

 and the Nile basins. It looks only a few steps from the 

 sources of the Ituri and its feeders, which go to swell the 

 Congo, to the edge of the escarpment whose feet are 

 lapped by the waters of Lake Albert, which sends its- 

 tribute to the Nile. That the Southern Muta Nzige 

 (Lake Albert Edward) belongs to the Nile and not 

 to the Congo system is finally proved. Mr. Stanley, 

 who seems to have been still in a fighting mood while 

 he was writing his book at Cairo, severely castigates the 



