DESCRIPTION OF KIMAWENZI 



219 



Kilimanjaro revealed itself. The clouds cleared off and the 

 mighty mountain presented a picture of which one could never 

 weary. Especially noteworthy were the pillar-like denticula- 

 tions and peaks of rugged Kimawenzi. The appearance of the 

 saw-like outlines, as seen when looking in a north-westerly 

 or south-easterly direction, leave little room for doubt that 

 Kimawenzi is all that is left of a now extinct volcano, the north- 

 east side of the crater of which was cleft open to one half of its 

 height in a mighty eruption, so that the greater part of the 

 wall was broken up into huge ravines and gorges, which look 

 accessible from the plain. The eastern side of the summit of 

 Kimawenzi consists of a perpendicular wall many thousands of 

 feet high, which was evidently originally the inner portion of 

 the crater. 1 



We had very little success in hunting here, but my heavy 

 gun brought down one rhinoceros, embedded in the thick skin 

 of which we found an arrow point shot by some Ndorobbo. 



Under these conditions I was naturally eager for a change, 

 so that I was very glad when in the afternoon of the 27th 

 Maktubu and ninety men arrived, bringing a letter for me 

 from Count Teleki, from which I will give an extract here. 



£ On the first day ' he said, ' we only marched for a little 

 over two hours, and camped by a clear brook. On the east 

 the land sinks in two terraces to the plain, and the courses of 

 the streams are marked by dark lines of foliage, but the 

 country seems quite uninhabited. 



1 Dr. Hans Meyer, who, with Herr Purtscheller, twice ascended Kimawenzi to 

 the foot of the ice-cap, 16,830 feet, being the greatest altitude reached, confirms in 

 almost every particular the opinion of the author. Dr. Meyer thus describes his 

 surroundings a this height : ' We stood on the brink of an abysmal gulf, sur- 

 rounded by an array of peaks and spires and pinnacles impossible to describe ; on 

 this, its eastern side . . . the mountain sinks sheer downwards into a gigantic 

 cauldron, the sides of which are scarred with innumerable rugged ravines ... I 

 was at first inclined to believe that here we had the original vent of the ancient 

 volcano, but I could not reconcile this supposition with the prevailing dip of the beds 

 of lava.' — First Ascent of Kilimanjaro, p. 173. 



