102 
THE TANGANYIKA PROBLEM. 
the rather interesting fact that it lies as low as 13,500 ft., 
had not been ascertained. It was, moreover, not known 
whether there were glaciers on the range, Stuhlmann 
had expressly doubted it ; and owing to a misapprehension 
under which Sir Harry Johnston persistently labours with 
respect to his own later explorations in the district, 
it is necessary, although wearisome, to repeat, that 
prior to our visit only three explorers had made any 
serious attempt upon the higher portions of the range. 
Stairs had ascended to 10,000 ft. on the north-western 
spurs ; Stuhlmann had reached 12,000 ft. on the west 
of the range, while Scott Elliot had reached heights of 
10,000 ft. and 12,000 ft. on both the eastern and western 
flanks. My own exploration was made up the Mobuko 
valley, terminating on the northern snow ridge of 
Sitchwi, and occupied about three weeks. My highest 
point reached on the top of this ridge was 14,900 ft. 
After my return to Fort Jerry my colleague, Mr. 
Fergusson, made a separate journey to the mountains and 
reached a point nearer to the Mobuko glacier, 14,600 ft. 
This was the point subsequently reached by Sir Harry 
Johnston, who makes it 14,800 ft. Still later, Mr. Wilde, 
an officer of the Uganda Protectorate, reached a point on 
the same or an adjacent ridge of 14,900 ft., but, as he was 
using an aneroid his altitude is probably rather over 
estimated. As to the question of the height attained by 
any of the other snow ridges and peaks of the range, I 
came to the conclusion that there was nothing more than a 
thousand feet higher than the point on which I was, either 
to the north or to the south, and this would give an outside 
altitude for the highest peaks of the range of, say, [6,500 ft. 
Curiously enough, this is practically the same height which 
all the older explorers ascribed to the range — namely, 
