Formation and General Features of IJinven 



zori. 



it as it stands, even were it only out of respect to tlie great 

 exijlorer. After all, had Stanley given the range a name 

 which had nothing to rlo witli the native names, had he 

 called it, for example, " Momitains of the Moon," r)r 

 "Mountains of Ptolemy," or "Victoria Mountains," or anv 

 similar name, all geographers would have accepted Jiis clioice 

 without discussion and without anv attempt to iiiodifV it. 



These hrief remarks ujidu tin' uaiuf of liuwciizori will 

 sutKce to indicate the inipossihilitv of attem[)tiiig to gather 

 local native names foi- each special mountain and peak of the 

 range. So far similar attempts have given as a result a 

 separate nomenclature for each explore^-. It is extremely 

 ])rohahle that the natives ne\er had indi\idual, specific 

 names for each peak, all the moiv so if we reflect that in 

 our own European Alps, many peaks received their name 

 only after the advent of Alpine climhing. 



It was clearly indispensable to give to the liuwenzori range 

 some .sort of nomenclature, which is the onlv means of translatnii;' 

 into current language the topogiaphical smvev of a region. 



Out of natural courtesy towards those of liis predeces.sors 



who had alreach' christened some of the momitains. the 



L)uke, after his return from Africa. mter\iewed Sir Harrv 



Johnston and Dr. Stuhlmann upon this suhject. An agreement 



was ea.sy, because l)oth of tliese great authorities shared the 



opinions of the Prince, who proposed to give to these mountains 



the names of travellers lono; a.ssociated with the history of Central 



African exploration, and confining to single peaks those names 



which Stuhlmann had given to whole portions of the range.* 



* Sir Harry Johnston h.id alroiuiy suggested that the mountains should be 

 called by the names of celebrated explorers in those cases where no precise and 

 specific native names were forthcoming. {Sir " 'I'he Uganda Protectorate," 

 ■Jiid Ed., London, 1904, Vol. T. jt. 159.) 



197 



