The Ruwenzori Mountains 



dispersed, my collecting work was of a strenuous nature, 

 this part of the Semhki forest being extraordinarily rich 

 in insect life. I, therefore, travelled very slowly, taking 

 three days to reach the mountains, being engaged each night 

 up to the early hours in papering insects. 



On my arrival at the foot of the mountain range, I rested 

 one day in the village of the local chieftain to obtain a supply 

 of food and the necessary guides to take me up to the last 

 mountain village of Kalongi. The promise of a blanket 

 to the chief soon had the desired result and by the evening 

 two men had promised their services and we had accumulated 

 a fair supply of food, mostly bananas from the huge groves 

 that here cover the country for many square miles. 



From the commencement, where the sparkling waters 

 of the Butahu River tumble out from their rocky bed beneath 

 the first steep spurs, the ascent is very fatiguing, with but 

 little respite from the long interwoven elephant-grass and 

 giant roots, that stick in the ribs or trip the feet of the traveller 

 who essays the unrelenting climb. 



After some hours of this kind of thing I arrived at the 

 first stage of the ascent and camped on a high bluff that here 

 forms one side of a giant gorge, at the foot of which, far 

 below, foams our old friend the Butahu. Perched alongside 

 my tent was the solitary hut of a black mountaineer, who 

 was engaged with his friends, or relations, in cutting down 

 and clearing a forest of immense wild plantains to form a 

 plantation for beans, which seem to be, with bananas, the 

 staple food of these natives. To make sure that the food- 

 supply would not run out, both at this camp and the next, 

 I bought all the food that my guides could rake in from the 

 hillmen round about. 



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