the Eastern Side of the Basin of the Nile. 245 
senting a saddle, which (so far as he could ascertain) was 
never covered with snow.’’* 
This description of Kilimandjaro is entirely applicable to 
the “‘ Aialu Mountains” of Messrs Isenberg and Krapf, by 
which expression are meant the twin mountains Aiyalu and 
Abida of my map in the fourteenth volume of the “ Journal 
of the Royal Geographical Society.” + Abida, the nearer and 
lower of the two, is evidently a gigantic volcano now extinct, 
of which the crater is two miles or more in diameter, while 
the numerous smaller volcanic cones by which it is sur- 
rounded are evidence of former tremendous activity. Aiyalu, 
by the Abessinians named Azalu, and famous among them as 
forming the eastern limit of their ancient empire, is distant 
about ten miles to the west of Abida, which it greatly exceeds 
in height, and, like Kilimandjaro, appears to be a massive 
_cone or dome. 
When Mr Rebmann’s description of Kilimandjaro was first 
made public, I was led to observe and comment on the close 
resemblance in several particulars between that mountain and 
Chimborazo, as described and depicted by Humboldt in his 
«Vues des Cordilléres,” page 102 and plate xvi.t In one 
respect, however, Kilimandjaro, as also Aiyalu, seem to differ 
from Chimborazo. The latter forms an integral portion of 
the chain of the Andes; whereas the two mountains of eastern 
Africa appear to be mountain-masses comparatively isolated, 
which may in common parlance be said to be unconnected 
with any other mountains, though in fact they are but spurs 
or offsets from an extensive mountain system; and these re- 
lated facts involve, in the second place, the harmony of my. 
opinion with Mr Rebmann’s. The distance of Aiyalu from the 
eastern edge of the Abessinian table-land is nearly a hundred 
miles, an interval more than sufficient to disconnect the two 
in the eyes of a cursory observer; and the case is probably 
the same with respect to Kilimandjaro and the elevated pla- 
* Church Missionary Intelligencer, vol. i. p. 151. 
_ + The author here exhibited to the meeting a representation of Aiyalu and 
Abida, from a sketch made by him at Baddikoma on the 28th January 1841, 
on his way to Shoa, 
t See “ Atheneum” of 1st December, 1849 (No. 1153), p. 1209. 
NEW SERIES.—VOL, XIV. NO. 11.—ocT. 1861. 21 
