2 
THE KILIMA-XJAR 0 EXPEDITION. 
as the highest of African mountains, its chief summit 
reaching an altitude of nearly 19,000 feet. It is just 
possible that in the unknown region stretching between 
the Victoria Nyanza and Abyssinia loftier peaks may 
be discovered, or that Mount Kenia, which lies about 
200 miles due north of Kilima-njaro, may be found 
after accurate measurement to exceed the height of 
the latter mountain by a few feet, but until this is 
done, the geography-books may still continue to put 
forward Kilima-njaro as the highest peak in Africa. 
Indeed, this they are likely to do for the next decade 
or so, whether he is superseded or not, for I have 
remarked that in all geographical questions, physical 
or political, it takes a sadly long time for increase of 
knowledge to penetrate the school manuals used in 
the instruction of the British youth. They always 
seem separated from the progress of discovery as the 
fixed stars are separated from our powers of vision. 
Just as the rays of light now reaching us from 
Sirius would be found illustrating a condition of 
things going on many years ago, so in most of the 
school geography-books, geographical knowledge is 
reflected a decade or so in arrears. I thinh in most of 
them France is now deprived of Alsace and Lorraine, 
and the territorial unity of Italy is a fait accompli; but I 
fancy the Congo is as yet undiscovered, and Turkey in 
Europe still extends its suzerainty over “ the Danubian 
Principalities,” Servia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. I 
took up one of these school class-books the other day 
and found that Mount Miltsin (12,000 odd feet) in 
Morocco was the highest known peak in Africa. 
Doubtless next year, in a later edition, the claims of 
Kilima-njaro will be considered, and just as these 
receive a tardy recognition, some adventurous traveller 
