210 
In the Heart of Africa 
As we wished to commence the march to the Congo on the 
1st of April from Irumu, and had meanwhile to get through 
an extensive programme, time began to press. Lieutenant von 
Wiese and I, therefore, had to leave the further ascent of the 
mountain, as well as the biological investigations, to the botanist 
and the zoologist alone, or the unfavourable climatic conditions 
prevailing might have still further delayed us. After touching 
at Lake Albert, I was specially keen on visiting Kilo, the 
auriferous, so we bade good-bye to our fellow-travellers and 
settled to meet again at Irumu at the end of March. 
Mildbraed reports as follows on the advance through the 
valley of the Butagu ; 
“On the morning of the nth of February, Schubotz and I 
separated from the Duke and Lieutenant von Wiese, accompanied 
by their best wishes, which savoured somewhat of sarcasm, con¬ 
sidering the atrocious weather of the past few days. Things 
looked far from encouraging when we set out; it was a dismal, 
gloomy day, but, at least, it was not raining. We entered the 
valley of the Butagu, possibly the largest stream on the western 
side of the mountain, and which bears the glacial waters of the 
highest snow mountains in the group,* to the Semliki. We 
pursued almost the identical route that Stuhlmann took in June, 
1891. It leads along the Butagu valley at a considerable 
elevation above the brook, which can only now and then be 
descried, up and down over the small streams which pour from 
the sides of the mountains situated to the north of the main 
valley. 
“ Elephant grass {Pennisetum cf. Benihami)^ with stalks the 
thickness of a man’s thumb, and four to five metres high, 
bordered the first stages of the narrow path. It is extremely 
unpleasant to march through matete of this description, for the 
massive stalks frequently choke the way and have to be hewn 
* The Duke d’Abruzzi assumes that the waters of the glaciers to the “ west of the 
Ludwig of Savoy, the Baker, the Stanley, the main portion of the Speke glaciers and 
of the Emin ” collect in the Butagu ; the two last mountains, however, do not come 
into consideration. The stream denoted in the plan of the Ruwenzori chain by a^ 
dotted line does not flow into the Butagu. 
