194 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERIT 



we could make our cocoa. Our breakfast over, we packed a 

 knapsack with several aneroids, a hypsometer, an ice-file, snow 

 spectacles, a flask of brandy, and other odds and ends, and, 

 carrying our climbing-irons, ice-picks, and mountain-stocks in 

 our hands, we started at six o'clock, as lively as only those can 

 be who have been up all night, in the direction of Kibo, which 

 stood out before us with outlines clearly defined. The snow 

 with which the upper portion of Kibo is draped extends much 

 lower down on the south-east than on the east, the ice-cap being 

 broken away on that side, leaving an almost horizontal wall, 

 the upper edge of the crater retaining only quite a narrow rim 

 of glittering ice. We could make out a black fissure between 

 the ice-masses, by which it seemed as if we could reach the 

 upper edge of the crater without setting foot on snow or ice, 

 and this we now meant to try and do. For the first two hours 

 the ascent was so gradual as to be almost imperceptible, and 

 we stept out briskly hoping to get warm, for when we started 

 the thermometer had marked —4 '6° Centigrade. We passed 

 masses of lava, which had split in different directions, as is usual 

 with vitreous substances during rapid congelation. No doubt 

 this was the formation compared by H. H. Johnston to huge 

 tortoise-shells. It was not until we had crossed the plateau 

 and were close to the foot of Kibo that the ground became a little 

 more uneven. We were now at the entrance to a ravine leading 

 quite gently up to the peak, but we turned aside from it and 

 continued our march over a ridge forming the slope of the 

 valley on the right. This ridge consisted entirely of lava, 

 broken up in its eruption into countless huge blocks, which all 

 however, in spite of their irregularity of form, betrayed a certain 

 uniformity of cleavage. Even this ridge could not be called 

 steep, but walking over it was very arduous, as we often had 

 to spring from block to block with the help of our Alpine 

 stocks. This mode of progression exhausted me dreadfully, 



