274 
THE KILIMA NJARO EXPEDITION 
to my followers and recommence the climb to-morrow, 
I still struggled on with stupid persistency, and at 
length, after a rather steeper ascent than usual up the 
now smoother and sharper ridge, I suddenly encoun¬ 
tered snow lying at my very feet, and nearly plunged 
headlong into a great rift filled with snow that here 
seemed to cut across the ridge and interrupt it. The 
dense mist cleared a little in a partial manner, and I 
then saw to my left the black rock sloping gently to 
an awful gulf of snow so vast and deep that its limits 
were concealed by fog. Above me a line of snow was 
just discernible, and altogether the prospect was such 
a gloomy one with its all-surrounding curtain of 
sombre cloud and its uninhabited wastes of snow and 
rock, that my heart sank within me at my loneliness. 
Nevertheless, I thought 66 only a little farther and 
perhaps I may ascend above the clouds and stand 
gazing down into the crater of Kilim a-njaro from its 
snowy rim.” So turning momentarily northwards I 
rounded the rift of snow, and once more dragged 
myself, now breathless and panting, and with aching 
limbs, along the slippery ridge of bare rock which 
went ever mounting upwards. I continued this for 
nearly an hour, and then dropped exhausted on the 
ground, overcome with what I suppose was an ordinary 
attack of mountain-sickness. 
It is not necessary to dilate on my sensations at 
this moment. Possibly there are some among my 
readers who have scaled the giant peaks of South 
America, India, and Armenia, and who would laugh 
at the puny difficulties that Kilim a-njaro presents—a 
mountain that can be climbed without even the aid of 
a walking-stick, and where the most serious obstacles 
arise from mist and cold which would scarcely deter a 
