The Ruwenzori Mountains 



in growth, with stems many inches in diameter, hung with 

 waving hchcns a yard or more in length. The ground 

 beneath is covered knee-deep in the most wonderful pink 

 and green mosses, through which we struggled with increasing 

 difficulty. I may say here that both my guides and carriers 

 led me to believe that water was scarce on the mountain- 

 side, and this is in part true if the sponge-like mosses are 

 not reckoned with. Handfuls of these beautiful growths 

 will produce half a pint of water at one squeeze, so no fear 

 need be felt on this score. 



As I struggled and stumbled, pushed and pulled my way 

 up through the rough heather stems, it became evident that 

 the track I was following, although overgrown, had been 

 made and used by some previous travellers, therefore after 

 some hours' climbing, eased by frequent halts to get my 

 breath, I was not surprised to find myself in an old camping 

 place, situated on the saddle that I had seen from below, 

 the elevation of which was about ten thousand feet. I had 

 now reached the foot of the secondary peaks that surround 

 the snow-capped summits of the range, and at intervals 

 when the swirling mist cleared, these could be seen — after 

 all our climbing — still thousands of feet above us. Towards 

 evening the mist cleared entirely, giving me an opportunity 

 to photograph portions of the snow-cap. 



As the site of this camping place was the bed of a primeval 

 heather and moss forest, the two tents stood on a kind of 

 superstructure formed by accumulated layers of ancient 

 heather stems and moss pads, which at any moment might 

 give way beneath the tread and let one through into deep 

 holes beneath. Some of my natives in fact used, as a sleeping 

 place, a kind of burrow or cave formed below this mass of 



^37 



