SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 257 



EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL. 



Dr. H. Meyer's Ascent of the Kilima Ndjaro. 



In a letter to the Geographical Society of Leipzig, which has been 

 published in Petermann's Miiteibmgen, Dr. H. Meyer describes 

 his ascent of the Kilima Ndjaro. On July 2 he left Tavveta, 

 and, after a two days' march through steppes and brushes, he 

 reached, in company with Herr von Eberstein, the village of Mare- 

 ale, a chief of the Marangu. He was kindly received, and Mareale 

 gave him three guides, with whom and twenty-two men of his cara- 

 van he started for the Kibo, the higher summit of the ICilima 

 Ndjaro. At a height of 5,700 feet they passed the last plantations 

 of bananas, and entered the primeval forests, which are always full 

 of mist, at a height of 6,600 feet. After two days, having passed 

 these forests, they reached the grassy belt surrounding the upper 

 part of the mountain. Here they left the trail which leads along 

 the south-eastern slope of the Kimawenzi to Useri, and turned 

 north-westward, following the upper limit of the forests. At the 



SKETCH MAP 



Kilima Ndjaio 



end of the second day they reached the place where, in 1884, John- 

 ston had staid for some time, at a height of 9,800 feet. Here part 

 of the caravan remained, but eight men volunteered to carry tent, 

 blankets, instruments, and provisions to the snow-line. The route 

 led over grass-covered streams of lava, which were intersected by 

 gulches of 150 feet depth, cut by the torrents which come from 

 the snow-fields of the summit. From here the saddle between the 

 Kimawenzi and Kibo appears almost horizontal. The travellers 

 ascended a lava-stream, and soon reached a gently sloping region 

 where meadows indicated the course of the brooks. Here the 

 first patches of snow were met with, and Meyer left here his tent on 

 the 9th of July, at an elevation of 14,000 feet. 



On the loth, when Meyer intended to strike camp, five of his ser- 

 vants refused to accompany him any farther, and therefore they were 

 left behind, while the rest of the caravan continued their march. 

 After a short time they reached the steep, fissured hill c, from 

 which the lava-stream had come on which they travelled the pre- 

 ceding day. Here they discovered the series of parasitic craters a, 

 b, c, d, from which numerous lava-streams have flowed southward. 



Some of these are separated by deep valleys, while others form a 

 continuous plateau which stretches out far northward between the 

 Kimawenzi and Kibo. Meyer proceeded near the southern part of 

 these hills at a mean elevation of 16,000 feet, and made his last en- 

 campment at the foot of the hill a. As the night promised to be 

 very cold, he sent his three negro servants back to the previous 

 camp, and ordered them to return the ne.\t day. Thus he and Von 

 Eberstein were alone, and passed the following night at a tempera- 

 ture of — 11° C. (12° F.) in their small tent. After a careful e.x- 

 amination of the cone of Kibo with a spy-glass, Meyer concluded 

 that an ascent on the south-eastern side was possible. But on the 

 highest summit a light blue wall of ice was seen, which extended to 

 a lower level on the south side of the mountain. In the beginning 

 of the ne.xt day, after having passed lava-streams covered with 

 large bowlders, the travellers reached continuous steep snow-fields 

 filling the rounded valleys between enormous lava-streams. John- 

 ston had reached this point, and a little farther to the north Count 

 Teleki had attempted an ascent a few weeks before Meyer's arrival. 

 In the morning the weather was clear, the snow hard, and therefore 

 the travellers succeeded in reaching a considerable elevation ; but 

 after three hours' climbing, fog set in. In the beginning the mist 

 was light, and the summit of the mountain could be seen occasion- 

 ally. Wherever a lava-stream crosses an older one, a new snow- 

 field begins, steeper than the preceding. At such points the travel- 

 lers staid for a few minutes, making barometrical observations and 

 collecting rock specimens and lichens. They were careful not to 

 ascend too rapidly, as work in elevations of more than 17,000 feet in 

 height is extremely e-xhausting. Later in the day the fog became 

 thicker, the highest parts of the mountain became invisible, and the 

 sun disappeared. The temperature fell from 8° C. (46° F.) to 

 — 30 C. (27" F.), and a snow-storm set in, which threatened to 

 obliterate the track. About half an hour later, Herr von Eberstein 

 began to fall back, and after a quarter of an hour more his strength 

 left him. As they were not far distant from the rim of the crater, 

 Meyer proceeded alone, and notwithstanding giddiness, breathless- 

 ness, and exhaustion, succeeded in ascending the last steep snow- 

 field. Here the slope became less steep, and, after having climbed 

 over a field of gigantic bowlders of ice, he reached the ice wall 

 which he had sighted from the last camp. It is about 100 feet 

 high, and inaccessible without the help of several expert guides and 

 a great apparatus of ropes, ladders, etc. Although Meyer did not 

 reach the rim of the crater itself, he concludes that it is probably 

 filled with ice, as the ice wall projects over it on all sides. After 

 having observed the barometer and thermometer, he returned to 

 where he had left Von Eberstein, who had meanwhile observed the 

 boiling-point thermometer. After a rest of about a quarter of an 

 hour, they continued their descent, and reached their tent after an 

 absence of seven hours. On the following morning the northern 

 part of the saddle was visited for making topographical observa- 

 tions, and, after the three negroes had returned, the party con- 

 tinued their descent of the mountain, and reached Mareale's village 

 after a march of four days. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



On Friday, Dec. 30, a meeting was held at the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons in New York City for the purpose of or- 

 ganizing an American physiological association. The association 

 has for its object the promotion of physiological research and of 

 social intercourse among the physiologists of the country. The as- 

 sociation will meet as a section of the Medical Congress every three 

 years. The meeting was presided over by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, 

 and many prominent physiologists from all parts of the country 

 were present. A constitution was adopted, and Prof. H. P. Bow- 

 ditch of the Harvard Medical School was elected president, and 

 Prof. H. N. Martin of Johns Hopkins University, secretary and 

 treasurer. 



— The seventh course of free lectures of the Cincinnati Society 

 of Natural History will be given on Friday evenings in January, 

 February, and March, 1888, in the rooms of the society. The fol- 

 lowing is the programme ; Jan. 6, Charles B. Going, ' How the 

 Chemist Works;' Jan. 13, George Bullock, 'Modern and Ortho- 

 chromatic Photography applied to Natural History ; ' Jan. 20, B. Mer- 



