12 ZOOLOGICAL EESULTS OP THE EUWENZOEI EXPEDITION. 



THE CLOUD. 



One of the most characteristic and at the same time most objectionable features of 

 Euwenzori is the ever-present cloud, which forms every morning and veils the upper 

 regions in gloom and moisture. It disappears almost as regularly every evening at 

 sunset, the mountains being nearly always clear of cloud during the night. Looking 

 down from the heights in the early morning, the clouds may be seen forming into 

 a bank which gradually rises and drifts up the mountain-side, all the while receiving 

 reinforcements from the hot damp atmosphere below. By about 10 a.m. all signs of 

 snow-capped mountains are blotted out and from below travellers can see nothing but 

 a great bank of clouds apparently resting upon a high ridge. This is the real reason 

 why Ruwenzori remained undiscovered for so long, although several travellers had 

 approached within sight of it before its actual discovery by Sir Henry Stanley in 1888. 

 When first the cloud is seen drifting silently up on to the mountain it is an interesting 

 and curious phenomenon, and the stranger comes running out of his tent lest it should 

 pass before he has seen it ; but after a time, when familiarity has bred contempt, one 

 begins to dread and hate this silent extinguisher of sunlight and joy that casts a 

 gloom and stillness over the land which a few moments before was tilled with life and 

 the songs of birds. 



Fortunately it is seldom that the cloud forms below 8500 or 9000 feet, but when 

 it does it brings a chilling and depressing sensation that is difficult to withstand, 

 and in a house or tent it is sometimes necessary to light candles to enable one to read 

 or work. 



GLACIERS. 



The glaciers and snow-fields of Kuwenzori are only insignificant remains of what 

 they were during an earlier epoch, when the valleys leading from the higher parts of 

 the range were probably all occupied by larger or smaller glaciers. 



Undoubtedly the Mubuku Glacier, which now terminates at 13,690 feet, extended 

 much farther down the valley in former times, probably to below the Bihunga village 

 at 6500 feet. Unmistakable striae and many great " perched blocks " may be seen 

 scattered far down the valley. 



The ascent of the Mubuku Valley is made in a curious succession of broad flat steps. 

 The first at 10,000 feet must be more than a mile long and three or four hundred 

 yards broad ; then there is a steep climb up an almost perpendicular cliff to an 

 altitude of nearly 11,000 feet, then another extent of flat valley, followed by a climb, 

 and again a broad flat step at 12,000 feet, and another below the glacier at about 

 12,800 feet. The bottom of the valley and especially these flat steps are so deeply 

 buried in peaty bog, the rotten vegetation of ages, that the old surface is completely 

 hidden and few traces can now be seen of terminal moraines. 



