Chapter 11. 



VL'ur, it seemed that one .siug'lt' rainy season reiyuetl supreme 

 amomr the mountains without auv hi^eak of fair weather. 



MOMBASA — I'dKT Kn.lMUM. 



The fact is that the great mountain range, rising like an 

 island from the vast marshy plains of Uganda and the 

 boundless forest of the Congo, l)ecomes a centre of attraction 

 ft)r the mass of vapours sucked up by the tropical sun, which, 

 condensing around the frozen peaks, form a permanent veil of fog 

 and cloutl. Thus it lias come ai)Out that many a traveller has 

 sjient months and months in the immediate neighlxiurliood 

 of the chain without once having sight nf the peaks, or, at 

 best, fugitive glimpses oidy. 



Stairs and Stuhlmann in June, and David in April apj)ear to 

 have found climatic conditions slightly more toleral)le than the 

 other explorers. Wollaston, however, had very l)ad luck in 

 April. Sir Heniy Stanley writes in May that he saw the snow 



26 



