Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-12-12
MOON MOUNTAINS.
HOW STANLEY FOUND THE SIC.
CItraT OF a CONTINENTS LIFE.
Gigantic Heights Famed Since tho
Dnys of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. tho
Rainmalser or Cloud King
Peaks 10000 Feet High.

~ " eSCAtt viz ibShO ilNtlfC III Illt
valley of the Semliki, bounded on one
side by the dark barrier CT the forest
and on the other by the crested banks
of the river. Beyond was field of
snow, and farther on rose snow peaks.
All during the day the cxpcctent eyes of
the travellers had rested on q long line of
dark and solemn spurs whose SUBMITS
were buried in leaden mists; but toward
evening the upper extrcmities doomed up
one after tho other till a great line of
shouldcr-shaped hills broke the sky; then
peak by peak struggled from bchiad
night black clouds till the giant of the
hills, the mighty Rein-makcr or Cloud
King, in all its majestic desolation, was
unveiled before their wondering cyes-a
square-browed central mass thirty miles
in length and white with snow. The
upper part of the mountain seemed to be
'poised in void of unsurpassed clear
ness" the dome was of dark blue crys-
tai embodied in q broad zone of milk
white mist, which produced the impress
sion of spectral mountain island sailing
in mid air.
AS the sun descended the mist zone
floated away and the apparition became
fixed to neither regions of mountain
slopes. This was the summit of the range,
which is broken up into many sharp,
triangular checks or narrow, saddled-
shaped ridges, their tops hidden by ever
lasting SHOWS, their flanks dark rs night,
looming like storm-clouds, their sides
bare and unscalablc, dropping through
snowy fields to the valley below.
These were the mountains famed in
song and story, of which fables have been
woven, and of which poets sang; this the
creation of the ''sea of darkness" Albert
Edward Lake; this theTshrine at which
Alexander and Cesar longed to worship;
the mysterious apparition that bewildei ed
the traveller and then disappeared to mock
him as with n mirage. They were placed
on the map of Homor's world forty cen
turtles ago and described rs the springs
that gave birth to the Nile in the region
where the pilgrims dwelt, and since his
day English and German, French and
Flemish explorers have theorizcd and
searched for them and given SO mnch
contradictory evidence about them that
their latest discoveries, of the Emin le-
lief expedition, give their chart to the
world conscious that some English
or German map-maker will, from
spleen or ignorance, surely shift their
base forty or fifty miles southeast" and
so expunge their labors. According to
these advices, however, the Ruwenzon
range is about ninety miles in length,
projecting like an enormous bastion of
an unconquerable fort, commanding from
the northeast the approaches of the AL
bert Lake and the Scmliki Valley, and on
the southern side the whole basin of AL
bert Edward Lake. Its principal western
drainage is the Semliki River, the great
stream which connects Albert Edward
and Albert Lakes, flowing south, and
waters the populous country of the AVIAN
bas; its southern drainage is into ALDER
Edward Lake, into which sixty.two
streams from the Ruwenzori alone de-
scend. The table-and surrounding the
mountains is about 1000 feet above the
sea, and the peaks arc from $4,000 to
$4,000 feet high.
The highest mountain of the range,
the Cloud King, intercepts every breeze
from south to east, preventing the ex-
halations of the valley from being blown
in that direction, SO that ON their meet.
ing the cold winds from the mountain
summit they are distilled and rcdiffused
in copious showers. From north to west
the northern range obstructs the free
passage of the winds and converts the
vapor into snow-white mist, which
sails in broad, irregular streams
and forms what Stanley describes
as an inverted sky, an impenctrable veil
which for 800 days in the year hides the
great mountain range with ITS colossal
crown. 1t was in character with the
proverbial Stanley luck that the Emin
relief expedition reached Albert Edward
Lake Mt just that season of the year when
the wonder of the dark continent was
visible in all its rugged grandeur. Such
explorers as have been disappointed,
however, may take this comfort, that the
peculiar position OF Ruwcnzori, which
obstructs the free passage of the winds,
secures for the valley that cquable eli
mate which fosters marvellous vegeta-
ton, vegetation SO lush and luxuriant
that the region is aptly called the national
conservatory of the worll; where ban
ana plants are eighteen inches in Diane
ter two feet from the ground; where
every tree stem has its robe of soft moss,
every rock is clothed with lichens, every
tree fern or horizontal branch with
orchids, while rare aud beautiful flow
ers distill marvellous perfumes. Best
of all, where there are rains and dews
and such productive country, there is
every prospect that should a Chris
tian civilization be introduced it would
take root, because when men are proper
ly fed their minds are prepared to open
to the truth. This then is one of the
many uses of the mountains of the Moon
their greatest however, is that which
Greek, and Roman, aud Egyptian SO long
and ignorantly attributed to them. Bet
ter than any smiling hill or pleasant vale
do these desolate heights brooding under
the eternal storm clouds render service
to- mankind. The torrents that rush from