Formation and General Features of liuwcnzoi-i. 



The snow-limit may be calculated as between 14,7()(t and 

 14,800 feet; in other words, at about the same level whieh 

 is reached by the lower extremity of most glaciers. Towards 

 14,000 feet the rain always turns into snow. 



There is not, perhaps, an ab.solute predominance of any one 

 wind throughout the chain. It is, at least, quite certain that 

 fog, snow, and hail are extremely frecjuent and common to all 

 the winds, so tluit all forecasts are vain. Fine and bad weather 

 may alternate several times in a few hours, and in so ca))iicious 

 a maimer as not to appear subject to anv law. Only in the 

 early morning hours there .seems to be a somewhat greater 

 2-)robability of a clear sky. 



The bad weather is frequently violent, and accompanied bv 

 strong wind, lightning and thunder, even in the highest 

 regions. J^ear Alexandra Peak and on Edward and Sella 

 Peaks the rocks bear witness to the violence of the.se storms 

 bv the innumerable fultjurites with which thev are riddled. 

 No conclusions as to the best season for visitin"- Kuwenzori 

 can be drawn from the experiences of tlie Italian expedition. 

 During June liad weather certainly predominated. The longest 

 dry spell was in the .second week of .Tulv. After this period 

 the expedition began to withdraw froni the higher valleys and 

 peaks, to which the rains and fogs seem to he .strictlv limited. 

 Indeed, on their return to Fort Portal they le;irned from the 

 resident missionaries that during those two months no rain 

 had fallen there. 



The valleys of Ruwenzori are often divided into natural 

 terraces produced by the formation of layers of strata above 

 the ridges of hard rock, which at an earlier period dammed uj) 

 these valleys in places, thus creating lake basins which liave 

 sub.sequently silted up with alluvial deposit, of which the 



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