A MOUNTAIN CLIMB. 67 



places where one finds quartz in small pieces. The higher 

 one climbs, the scantier becomes the vegetation, until upon the 

 summit itself, which I reached after three-quarters of an hour's 

 climb, there are only four or five stunted trees amidst blocks of 

 rock and the grey mushroom-like structures of termites. The 

 readings of the aneroid and thermometer (October 9, 1877) 

 were as follows : — 8h. 00m. a.m., camp, 25.79 i n -> 68.9° Fahr. ; 

 8h. 49m. A.M., summit, 25.26 in., 104° Fahr. (The thermo- 

 meter was not properly shaded from the sun.) This gives the 

 height of the mountain, roughly calculated and without any 

 corrections, as 4500 feet, which agrees fairly with the alti- 

 tudes previously observed in Unyoro by Speke and Baker. 



The country spread out before me was a highland sloping to 

 the south, and more gently to the west, upon which rise isolated 

 dome-shaped hills and even short ridges. It looks as if a 

 continuous plateau had existed there in a past age, from which 

 enormous floods had washed away the softer rocks, thus giving 

 rise to the existing hills. The parallel arrangement of these 

 hills on either side of the road, aids one's fancy in tracing the 

 ancient beds along which the denuding waters took their 

 course, and of which the existing kJwrs are but feeble phan- 

 toms. One single table mountain is visible from here, but 

 unfortunately I was not able to ascend it. Moreover, the 

 mountains to the west of the lake, which are not visible owing 

 to intervening heights, are far higher than the one I climbed, 

 and Jebel Mezeja Mkuru (" the Great Lord ") is also much 

 higher. There is said to be a plateau upon it to which the 

 inhabitants retire when they are attacked. I was also told of 

 an unfathomable circular lake and of remarkable caverns far 

 away to the south-east. I may add that, with respect to its 

 geological structure, I have never seen so monotonous a 

 country as Unyoro. 



Two Zanzibar merchants arrived here from Karagwa with- 

 out touching Uganda ; both were freed slaves who wished to 

 buy ivory by order of their masters ; it is abundant and 

 pretty cheap. They offered in exchange cloth, guns, powder, 

 percussion-caps, copper, brass, &c. Near midday, on the 10th 

 of October, a company of Waganda also arrived in order to 

 trade. Their chief, Mbazi, an old acquaintance of mine, sought 



