THE WORLD'S HIGHEST ALTITUDES 



517 



endurance, though it may be admitted 

 that here, as in the case of Mount Saint 

 EHas and of Kabru, there were no 

 serious technical difficulties.* 



RUWENZORI 



Almost simultaneously with the de- 

 parture of Doctor Cook's party for the 

 second attack on the loftier compeer of 

 Mount Saint Elias, the conqueror of this 

 peak was setting out upon a task of 

 greater difficulty under conditions almost 

 diametrically reversed — the ascent of 

 Mount Ruwenzori, the snowy source of 

 the Nile, rising almost upon the Equator. 

 Here also several previous attempts had 

 been made, both by explorers and 

 alpinists. The more successful of these 

 had set foot on the glaciers, yet none had 

 reached a point sufficiently high, or with 

 weather clear enough, to overlook the 

 region and bring back satisfactory topo- 

 graphical data. Here again careful pre- 

 liminary arrangements, adequate re- 

 sources, and perfect discipline were 

 crowned with a brilliant success. The 

 mystery of these till recently unheard of 

 mountains — though there seems little 

 doubt that they are the "Mountains 

 of the Moon" of Ptolemy (A. D. 151) — 

 has now been completely dispelled, and 

 the map shows even intimate details of 

 their somewhat complicated topography ; 

 for Ruwenzori is not a mountain, but a 

 group of six connected massifs, each 

 rising in several peaks and all crowned 

 with eternal snows. These are fourteen 

 in number, of which nine range between 

 15,800 and 16,81. 5 feet, and are there- 

 fore higher than Mont Blanc. 



Leaving the shore of the Indian Ocean 

 at Mombasa on May 4, the party made 

 the quickest possible passage through 

 the fever-breeding country by rail and 

 by steamer on Victoria Nvanza to En- 

 tebbe, on its northern shore. With an 

 army of 220 porters and yet other attend- 

 ants, they proceeded by short stages of 

 fifteen miles a day to Fort Portal (218 

 miles), the capital of the Protectorate of 



* A superb series of illustrations of Alaska's 

 mighty peaks will appear in the July number 

 of this Magazine. 



Uganda, the farthest outpost of civiliza- 

 tion. Rising stage by stage, no longer 

 by roads but by trails up slippery hill- 

 sides and over timbered ridges and rush- 

 ing streams, amid strange, weird tree- 

 growths, and with the wild beasts of the 

 jungle sometimes in evidence, they came 

 at length to their permanent camp, Bu- 

 jongolo (12,350), a comfortless place 

 under the inhospitable shelter of an over- 

 hanging cliff, distilling the ever-condens- 

 ing fogs of long days of rain. Here a 

 hardier race of negro porters, took the 

 place of those from the lowlands. From 

 here the numerous excursions set out. 



Of the eighteen summits of the six 

 massifs that form Ruwenzori fourteen, 

 including all the highest ones, were as- 

 cended by the Duke of the Abruzzi and 

 his guides, followed later by the smaller 

 parties in several instances. Vittorio 

 Sella made nine ascents of six summits, 

 and procured the superb series of photo- 

 graphs which make the printed narra- 

 tive* one of the most beautiful of recent 

 alpinistic contributions to geographic lit- 

 erature. The six massifs were named for 

 leading African explorers, the name of 

 Stanley being p;iven to the one bearing 

 the highest pe? :s. On Stanley there are 

 five summits, to the two loftiest of which 

 were given the royal names of Margherita 

 and Alexandra. A large amount of data 

 with regard to topography, geology, min- 

 eralogy, meteorology, and botany was 

 collected and forms a compendious ap- 

 pendix to the story. This brilliant cam- 

 paign required four months for its exe- 

 cution, and though the fever compelled 

 the dropping out of one of the party at 

 Mombasa and detained Captain Cagni 

 for two weeks at Entebbe, so far as ap- 

 pears no life was sacrificed during the 

 expedition. 



AT.riNT' ACCIDENTS 



Indeed, in this story of the world's 

 most notable ascents, conducted largely 

 in inaccessible regions and under extra- 

 ordinary conditions, we have had occa- 

 sion in but three instances to allude to 



* Ruwenzori. New York, E. P. Dutton & 

 Co., 1908. 



