Appendix A. 
interpolation of tlie passage in the Geography where allusion is made to the Mountains of the 
Moon, or, in other words, he holds them to have been written by Ptolemy himself. “ The 
attempt of Mr. Cooley,” he writes, “ to discard altogether the Mountains of the Moon as an 
interpolation in the text of Ptolemy, due to the Arabian Geographers, appears to me wholly 
untenable. The passage in which he speaks of them (IV, 9, 3) is unconnected with that con¬ 
cerning the two lakes (IV, 8, 23), and probably derived from a different authority; but it is 
not inconsistent with it.” (See op cit., p. 617, note 3.) 
(-') O. Baumann, Dnreh Masailand zur Nilquelle, p. 133. 
( 2S ) Before these geographical details were known, geographers were naturally inclined 
to identify those snowy mountains of East Africa with the Mountains of the Moon of 
Ptolemy’s Geography. It will sutlice to mention Charlics Bf.ke (On the Mountains 
forming the eastern side of the Nile, Edinburgh, 1861) ; Vivien de Saint-Martin 
(Le Nord de V Afrique dans V Antiquite greeque et romaine, Paris, 1863) ; Etienne Felix 
Berlioux (Doctrina Ptolemaei ah injuria recentiorum vindicatn , Paris, 1871), Sir E. II. 
Bunbdry (A History of Ancient Geography, Vol. II, p. 617) ; H. Tozek, who, in his 
History of Ancient: Geography, published in 1897, hence subsequently to Stanley’s last 
great expedition, writes at p. 352: “The intelligence which is contained in these two 
statements (regarding the two lakes as sources of the Nile and the Mountains of the Moon) 
was probably transmitted, not by way of the Nile Valley, which was not followed by 
traders beyond the marshy region which has been already noticed, but from the coast in 
the neighbourhood of Zanzibar, where the station of Khapta had been established. On 
this supposition it is not improbable that the lakes here spoken of are the Victoria and 
Albert Nyanza, and the mention of so unusual a phenomenon as snow-covered mountains in 
the neighbourhood of the equator supports the conjecture that the Mountains of the Moon 
are none other than Mounts Kilimanjaro (19,700 feet), and Kenia (18,370 feet), which lie 
between those lakes and the sea.” 
(-•') Amongst the most vigorous champions of Stanley’s view is H. S. Schlichter, who 
concludes his learned work on Ptolemy’s Topography of Eastern Equatorial Africa (1891), 
with the following words :—“ Mr. Stanley’s discovery of this great snow mountain, surrounded 
by a series of other peaks, forms, so to speak, the key to the whole question of the Mountains of 
the Moon. For it is perfectly clear that by the Ptolemaean mountain, the snows of which 
feed the Nile lakes, only Ruvenzori can be meant, as may be seen from a glance at 
Mr. Stanley’s map, where we find a great number of rivers (I have counted more than forty) 
which flow' from the heights of Ruvenzori into the Semliki or the Albert Edward Nyanza. 
We have seen that the western end of the Mountains of the Moon, as described by Ptolemy, 
coincides with Ruvenzori, and Mr. Stanley is therefore perfectly justified in claiming to 
have found and identified the lofty peaks, celebrated in antiquity, in which the Nile takes 
its rise, and which, for many centuries past, were more enigmatical than any other mountain 
in the world.” 
Dealing with a question whose final resolution, in the absence of safe and positive data 
and in the scarcity of actual facts, must always remain a “ pious wish,” one well understands 
how Schlichter’s conclusions were not unanimously accepted, and even found formidable 
opponents, amongst whom Ravenstsin must be specially mentioned. The examination of the 
arguments advanced for and against would far exceed the modest limits to which I have 
confined myself in these pages. I must rest satisfied with here quoting the opinion expressed 
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