Exploration of Mt. Speke and Mt. Emin. 
mists nearly permanent could hardly cause so rapid an evapora¬ 
tion as alone to account for the very considerable waste of 
the glaciers. The limpidity of the waters of torrents which 
spring from certain glaciers of Ruwenzori may, in all probability, 
be ascribed to the almost complete immobility of the glaciers 
themselves, owing to which they grind no detritus from the 
rocks that form their beds. As was mentioned in the preceding 
chapter, these glaciers are in the form of ice-caps on the 
summits and ridges rather than of true streams of ice flowing 
from neves, as is the case in our own Alps. 
Fully to estimate, however, the importance of the Ruwenzori 
chain in feeding the Nile, we must take into account not so 
much the glaciers as the entire mountain range, whose highest 
peaks soar up into the colder strata of the air, and gather to 
themselves and precipitate in rain and snow the mass of 
vapours drawn up from the vast plains below, while the 
network of valleys form great basins to collect the water thus 
gathered. The reader will remember that on the western and 
southern slopes alone Stanley counted sixty-two torrents flowing 
from the mountains into the Semliki River and into Lake 
Albert Edward. 
On the evening of the 25th of June the scene changed 
rapidly. The whole sky cleared up, and a marvellous sunset 
kindled the whole valley and the far-off forest of the Congo 
into flaming red. 
The following night was bitterly cold. On the morning of 
the 26th, the Duke and the guides were on their way by four 
o’clock. The frost was hard and all the water frozen, even the 
little lake was nearly completely covered with ice. The hard 
snow gave a good foothold upon the glacier. By a quarter 
past five they were once more on the summit of Vittorio 
237 
