Exploration of Mt. Speke and ]\It. Emin. 



mists nearly permanent could hardly cause so rapid an evapora- 

 tion as alone to account for the very considerable waste of 

 the glaciers. The limpidity of the waters of torrents which 

 spring from certain glaciers of Ruwenzori may, in all probahilitv, 

 be ascribed to the almost complete immobility of the glaciers 

 themselves, owing to which they grind no detritus from the 

 rocks that form their beds. As was mentioned in the preceding 

 chapter, these glaciers are in the form of ice-caps on the 

 summits and ridges rather than of true streams of ice flowing 

 from nevds, as is the case in our own Alps. 



Fully to estimate, however, the importance of the Ruwenzori 

 chain in feeding the Nile, we mu.st take into account not so 

 much the glaciers as the entire mountain range, whose highest 

 peaks soar up into the colder strata of the air, and gather to 

 themselves and precipitate in rain and snow the mass of 

 vapours drawn up from the vast plains below, while the 

 network of valleys form great basins to collect the water thus 

 gathered. The reader will remember that on the western and 

 southern slopes alone Stanley counted sixty-two torrents flowing 

 from the mountains into the Semliki River and into Lake 

 Albert Edward. 



On the evening of the 25th of June the scene changed 

 rapidly. The Avhole sky cleared up, and a marvellous sunset 

 kindled the whole valley and the far-ofi" forest of the Congo 

 into flaming red. 



The foUowino: night was bitterly cold. On the morning of 

 the 26th, the Duke and the guides were on their way by four 

 o'clock. The frost was hard and all the water frozen, even the 

 little lake was nearly completely covered with ice. The hard 

 snow gave a good foothold upon the glacier. By a quarter 

 past five they were once more on the summit of Vittorio 



237 



