The Virunga Volcanoes 



lasted may be gathered from the fact that at the post of 

 Walikah, in the Congo forests, one hundred miles to the west, 

 ashes fell heavily for two days, while the eruption was heaid 

 at Beni, one hundred and forty miles to the north, and at 

 Bukoba, on the Victoria Nyanza, one hundred and ninety 

 miles east." 



With this description of the most recent eruption in the 

 Virunga Mountains, we will pass on to the eight volcanoes 

 themselves, composing this range. 



NiNAGONGO or Niragongo — although by no means the 

 highest, as it only reaches an altitude of 11,300 feet, 

 is nevertheless the most famous of these, by reason of 

 its imposing position close to Lake Kivu and its symmetrical 

 form. It may, indeed, be termed classical, so much 

 is it held in superstitious dread by the inhabitants of the 

 surrounding districts as being the abode of evil spirits, 

 and so much does it enter into their life and history. The 

 first ascent of this cone was made by Count Gotzen in 1894, 

 and since then it has been climbed by Mr. J. E. S. Moore, 

 the Duke of Mecklenburg, and many others. It may be 

 described as a perfectly symmetrical truncated cone, over- 

 shadowing two elevated subsidiary extinct craters on its 

 north and south sides. Both the subsidiary cones are quite 

 perfect, the one to the north, which contains a crater-lake, being 

 9,480 feet above sea level, and the one to the south, which 

 has a grass-covered dry lava bottom, 9,255 feet. The whole 

 pile is forest and bush clad to within one thousand feet of 

 its summit, the last five hundred feet being bare iron-like lava. 

 The crater, which appears to be perfectly round, I calculated 

 approaches one mile in diameter and its vertical sides six 

 hundred and fifty feet deep — with an oval eruptive vent of 



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