Formation and General Features of Ruwenzori. 
it as it stands, even were it only out of respect to the great 
explorer. After all, had Stanley given the range a name 
which had nothing to do with the native names, had he 
called it, for example, “ Mountains of the Moon,” or 
“ Mountains of Ptolemy,” or “ Victoria Mountains,” or any 
similar name, all geographers would have accepted his choice 
without discussion and without any attempt to modify it. 
These brief remarks upon the name of Ruwenzori will 
suffice to indicate the impossibility of attempting to gather 
local native names for each special mountain and peak of the 
range. So far similar attempts have given as a result a 
separate nomenclature for each explorer. It is extremely 
probable that the natives never had individual, specific 
names for each peak, all the more so if we reflect that in 
our own European Alps, many peaks received their name 
only after the advent of Alpine climbing. 
It was clearly indispensable to give to the Ruwenzori range 
some sort of nomenclature, which is the only means of translating; 
into current language the topographical survey of a region. 
Out of natural courtesy towards those of his predecessors 
who had already christened some of the mountains, the 
Duke, after his return from Africa, interviewed Sir Harry 
Johnston and Dr. Stuhlmann upon this subject. An agreement 
was easy, because both of these great authorities shared the 
opinions of the Prince, who proposed to give to these mountains 
the names of travellers long associated with the history of Central 
African exploration, and confining to single peaks those names 
which Stuhlmann had given to whole portions of the range.* 
* Sir Harry Johnston had already suggested that the mountains should be 
called by the names of celebrated explorers in those cases where no precise and 
specific native names were forthcoming. (See “ The Uganda Protectorate,” 
2nd Ed., London, 1904, Yol. I, p. 159.) 
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