A SECOND ASCENT . 
275 
cockney from ascending Snowdon. But the feeling 
that overcame me when I sat and gasped for breath 
on the wet and slippery rocks at this great height was 
one of overwhelming isolation. I felt as if I should 
never more regain the force to move, and must remain 
and die amid this horrid solitude of stones and snow. 
Then I took some brandy-ancl-water from my flask, 
and a little courage came back to me. I was miserably 
cold, the driving mist having wetted me to the skin. 
Yet the temperature recorded here was above freezing- 
point, being 35° Fahr. I boiled my thermometer, and 
the agreeable warmth of the spirit-lamp put life into 
my benumbed hands. The mercury rose to 183 ’ 8 . 
This observation when properly computed, and with 
the correction added for the temperature of the inter¬ 
mediate air, gives a height of 16,315 feet as the 
highest point I attained on Kilima-njaro. I thus 
came within a little more than 2000 feet of the summit, 
which is usually estimated to reach an altitude of 
18,800 feet. 
Having looked at my watch, I found it was now 
nearly half-past four, so I resolved to hasten back as 
quickly as possible to my improvised shelter, for the 
clouds were thickening, and thin showers of sleety 
snow were falling. A high wind arose and whipped 
my face with the icy rain, and made it very difficult 
to keep my footing on the slippery ridge. At length 
I reached the boulders and the sand, then descending 
with greater ease entered once more, at about an 
altitude of 15,000 feet, the region of vegetation. 
Keeping in view the small hillock I have already 
mentioned as such a useful landmark, I ultimately 
found my way back to the spot where I had left the 
men. What was my agonized surprise to find on 
T 2 
