The Ruwenzori Range. 
that is, from west to east. But at the same time, either owing to our 
knowledge of the existence of snowy peaks in that part of east equatorial 
Africa, or else because of the generally admitted principle that the larger 
rivers rise in the highest mountains, ( 2 - 5 ) those moderate undulations of the land 
were without more ado transformed to a group of gigantic highlands. We thus 
see how, despite their trend, quite different from the equatorial, the two groups 
of Kilimanjaro-Kenia and Ruwenzori, thanks to their great elevation, came to 
form part of the Mountains of the Moon. ( 26 ) To which of the two should the 
preference be given 1 
Respecting Kilimanjaro-Kenia, we have to consider a fact of vast 
geological and hydrographic importance. The narrow strip of seaboard along 
the Indian Ocean, where prevail the jurassic limestones and argillaceous schists, 
is followed westwards by a chain of isolated crystalline heights commonly 
designated by the name of the East African Schistose Mountains. AVest of 
this system we enter a zone highly remarkable for its great geological 
disturbances. It is distinguished above all by the great East African Rift 
Valley, a vast line of fissure running in the direction of the meridian, and 
extending for 40° of latitude from the Asphaltites Lake (Dead Sea) all the way 
to Ugogo. The trough on the east side is to lie regarded as a secondary rift, 
above which rise Mounts Meru, Kilimanjaro, and probably also Ivenia. The 
whole of this district west of the East African Schistose system sends none of 
its running waters either directly or indirectly to the Indian Ocean. In other 
words, it is essentially a landlocked continental region. ( 2T ) Thus, while the 
east slope of the Schistose Mountains is traversed by streams tributary to the 
Indian Ocean, the few rivers of the west slope find no other outlet but the 
chain of lakelets which follow in the direction from north to south along the 
meridian rift. The aforesaid Kilimanjaro-Kenia group stands therefore 
absolutely outside the Lake Victoria and Somerset Nile basins. ( 2S ) 
It is otherwise with Ruwenzori, which, by its east watershed not only 
belongs to the basin of the Somerset Kile and of the region north-east of Lake 
Albert Edward, but also, by its south and west slopes, to the basin of the same 
Lake Albert Edward, the Semliki and Lake Albert. Hence, if, as is probable, 
there exists any orographic, if not geological, link between Ruwenzori and the 
group of Virunga Mountains, which rise to the south and south-west of Lake 
Albert Edward to an altitude of 13,000 feet, the identification of this highland 
system with the Mountains of the Moon would be all the more confirmed. 
This system is, in fact, the only one in the whole of equatorial Africa that 
completely satisfies all the conditions specified in Ptolemy’s Geography, not 
even altogether excepting that of the general trend, which is precisely 
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