NATURE 



[July 8, iqog 



The Duke cf the Abruzzi established definitely the 

 existence in the Ruwenzori range of six great massijs 

 of snow-crowned, glaciated peaks. These are not 

 placed in a continuous chain, but rather in a cluster, 

 almost a broken amphitheatre, with Mts. Speke and 

 Baker in the middle and the snowless Portal Peaks 

 (11,000-12,000 feet) on the eastern side. It is from the 

 south-east that the Ruwenzori giants are most broken 

 down and most approachable. All the snow peaks 

 are grouped within a few miles of one another, but 

 beyond them, to the north, are lofty, snowless hum- 

 mocks, perhaps rising to 9000 or 10,000 feet, 

 which prolong the chain northwards in the direction 

 of Lake Albert. 



The loftiest of the snow-crowned juasslfs or moun- 

 tains (Mt. Stanley) rises to 16,815 feet at its highest 

 point (the Margherita Peak). The next highest 

 massif is Mt. Speke (16,080 feet). After that Mt. 

 Baker (15,988 feet), Mt. Emin (15,797 feet), Mt. Gessi 

 (15,647 feet), and Mt. Luigi di Savoia (15,299 feet). 



In possessing all these separate snow-crowned 

 massifs, Ruwenzori differs from Kilimanjaro (with 

 only two) and Kenya (only one), besides in the fact 

 that its origin is due to a slow upheaval of the earth '> 

 crust, and not— as is the case with the other two great 

 snow mountains of Africa, and their neighbours, Meru 

 and Elgon — to an outburst of volcanic energy. 



In the zoological collection made by the Duke w^as 

 a fine specimen of a leopard obtained at Bujongolo 

 (about 12,000 feet altitude), on the east side of 

 Ruwenzori. It measured about 7 feet 2 inches in 

 total length, and of this measurement the tail only 

 occupied about 2 feet 3 inches. These are rather the 

 proportions in tail and body of a jaguar than of a 

 leopard. The markings, moreover, in the large size 

 and completeness of the rosettes recall the jaguarine 

 type,^ and still more the boldly marked leopards of 

 Sinai, Persia, and China, and the Central Asian 

 Ounce. The canine teeth in Felis pardiis ruwenzorii 

 are proportionately much longer than in other African 

 leopards (except in one example from the Abyssinian 

 Mountains). . In this point (but not in skull 

 peculiarities) the Ruwenzori leopard resembles the 

 peculiar " fontanieri " leopard ■ of China. Prof. 

 Lorenzo Camerano, who describes F. pardus ruwen- 

 zorii, does not seem to be aware that Mr. Lydekker 

 a year or so ago described a similar type from the 

 Tore country at the north-east base of Ruwenzori. The 

 present writer, also saw a large leopard skin of this 

 description in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Teggart 

 (C.M.S.) in eastern Toro in June, 1900. This skin 

 appears in the background of a seated man on p. 587 

 of the " Uganda Protectorate." 



The second volume of " II Ruwenzori " contains a 

 good deal of interesting material on the subject of the 

 Colobus monkeys (a group which seem to retain 

 points of affinity with the Seninopithecines of Asia, 

 the Arch»olemurine forms of Madagascar, and even 

 the Cebidae of America); of Grant's zebra, and the 

 classification of the " quagga " subgenus of equines ; 

 of the Central African buffaloes ; and of the squirrels, 

 dormice, mice, and crested rats (Lophuromys) of 

 Ruwenzori. A few new birds are described, and 

 numerous molluscs. A noteworthy contribution to " II 

 XO. 2071, VOL. 81] 



Ruwenzori " is Prof. F. Silvestri's essay on the 

 Myriapoda — the Diplopoda especially — obtained by the 

 Abruzzi expedition. 



A very large and important collection was also 

 made of earthworms and of parasitic worms, the 

 latter derived from the intestines of beasts, birds, and 

 leptiles. 



The botanical section of this work is also of high 

 interest, as it illustrates very conclusively the alpine 

 and subtropical flora of Ruwenzori — the giant 

 groundsels, strange lobelias, the heaths, junipers, and 

 ferns — filling up many gaps left in the work of 

 previous travellers. 



(2) Not equally valuable in the scientific study of 

 Africa is the work so sumptuously produced by the 

 Paris Museum of Natural History. The results of 

 M. Edouard Fo^'s journeys, to have acquired 

 proper significance and reward from the public in- 

 terested in African geography and ethnology, should 

 have been published ten years ago. His remarks 

 would then have been more apposite ; his discoveries 

 would not have been forestalled by later and more 

 scientific travellers. As it is, M. Foi was at no time 

 what might be called a trained observer, except in 

 regard to astronomical and meteorological observa- 

 tions and records. His ethnology and his natural 

 history strike the critical reader as hazy, inexact, too 

 generalised, too little founded on direct personal 

 observation, too much influenced by traditional 

 opinions. His vocabularies of native languages are 

 full of errors, and are, moreover, quite displaced in 

 interest by the serious treatment of these Zambezian, 

 Central African, and East Congo languages by a 

 host of British, French, and Belgian missionaries and 

 officials. Amongst inaccuracies, too (perhaps on the 

 part of the editors), is the presentation of an obvious 

 Bushman (pp. 142 and 143) as a Vao. [The original 

 of this mis-named picture is in the possession of the 

 Royal Anthropological Institute.] Some of the notes 

 on the Bushmen would be interesting and valuable were 

 they not so devoid of actuality, of names, places, and 

 dates. Apparently M. Foi did encounter some of the 

 mysterious " Vaalpens " in the valley of the northern 

 Limpopo (though he does not give them that name — 

 see pp. 113, 114), a race the existence of which (as a 

 " pygmy " type distinct from the Bushman) has been 

 asserted by Prof. Keane and denied by Mr. Selous. 

 It is interesting to note that M. Fo^ comments on 

 the complete absence of steatopygy among these 

 north Limpopo Bushmen (? Vaalpens), and the rest 

 of his description rather accords with what Prof. 

 Keane has collected relative to the Vaalpens. 



There are portions of M. Fok's essays on the lion 

 and the African elephant which strike one as new, 

 interesting, and derived from original observation, 

 mixed up, however, with much unnecessary padding. 

 He is able to supply two good photographs of the 

 rare Angas's Tragelaph and some fresh information 

 about that handsome creature. He discovered in 

 Central Zambezia what is probably a new sub- 

 species of Burchell's zebra (or, as Mr. R. I. Pocock 

 would say, quagga), which seems in its narrow 

 striping an intermediate form between the zebra and 

 the quagga groups (see also on this subject " II 



II 



