Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-24
ARRICHS GREAT SNOW pEsK.
THOUGH NEAR THE EQUATOR IT'S ICE
CAP NEVER MELTs.
The First Ascent by Expiorers-A Mount.
ain Nearly Twenty Thousand
Feet High.
London standard. Ami 18th. |

london Standard, April 18th.
The interesting paper. describing his as
cent of Kilimanjaro, read by DR.. Meyer
to the Geographical Society last night,
was one of more interest to the botanist
and geologist than to the mere topog-
rapher, for the great snow peak of eastern
Africa has already been described by Dr.
Meyer himself with great minuteness and
before his day more than one naturalist
passed some time on its slope. When, in
1913, Mr. Rebman, of the Church Mission
| airy Society, intimated to the world that
there was in Africa, three degrees south of
the equator, mountain covered with per-
petual snow, his intelligence was received
with something like incredulity, although
it was fully confirmed by his companion,
DR.. Krapf All doubts on this matter
were, however, finally set at rest by the
| visits paid to the mountain by the party of
Baron Won der Decken, in 1862, and BY
that of Mr.. New, who, in 1867. reached
the lower edge of the snow. Since that
date it has been frequently examined and
described with more or less fullness.
| Sportsmen have hunted around its base
| and far up its lower reaches, aad Mr..
Johnston, now our Consul in Mozambique,
| passed several months in collecting natural
| history specimens within the temperate
area of its many climatic zones. In real
ity, ii is now believed that long before
modern African travel or travellers were
| dreamt of, Aristotle alluded to it when he
wrote of ''the so-called Silver Mountain"
| from which flowed the mighty Nile. But
no one viii dispute DR.. Meyers claim of
being the first to attain the summit, or de-
ny that to him belongs the glory of beng
! its most exhaustive explorer, although he
| had the experience OF more than one pre-
decessor by which to profit
Of late years Kilimanjaro-or Kilima-
| Marc, as the purists in Bantu philology
insist on writing the name-has assumed
an entirely novel aspect. 1t has been
| found to be only one Of several snow
capped peaks in the same region, and one
of many dormant or extinct volcanoes in
| the African Highlands. Kenia, not to
mention the white top of Ruwenzori
which Mr.. Stanley has described in his
| preliminary account of his latest explora-
tions, equals, if it does not surpass it. in
grandeur, though Kilimaniaro is undeni-
| ably the highest known point in Ahica.
Some of its rivals have, it is understood,
been assembled, though there are, or there
have recently been, such number of pri-
| vate expeditions in Central Africa that it
| is difficult to keep account of the work
done by travellers, many of whom are
| Crtc -lcI II. -
are engaged on behalf OF rival trading
companies, which have every interest in
| keeping secret the movements Of their
agents. But kilimaniaro is within the
sphere of the German company's opera
tions, SO that DR.. Meyer is justified in
making the patriotic boast that in ascend
ing the summit of this mountain he has
been able to plant the flag of his country
on the Hottest ground in German terri
| tory.
Kilimaniaro stands quite isolatedl from
all other nights on the eastern edge of the
great plateau of Equatorial Africa, though
Kenia and Lemeru lie only 100 miles
| away, while due west, at distance of be-
! twee 80 and 40 miles, towers the noble
mass of Mount Meru. 1t has two princi-
| pal SUBMITS, besides various volcanic
craters now filled with vegetation, or, in
one instance at least, with one of those
strange tarns which are so familiar to
biologists in the Eifel and other volcanic
regions. The great peaks are Kibo, or
Baremi, magnificent dome, distinguished
by smooth and regular outline, and
Mawenzi, or Kimawenzi, which, on the
contrary, is dark and ragged, the saddle
between the two being a ridge several
miles in extent. The first of these sum-
mits DR.. Meyer, during his three-weeks'
stay on the upper slopes of the mountain,
| assembled four times, while the latter was
reached almost as often. Hence we mag
inc, in spite of his modest declaimer, there
is not great deal to do for those who
come after him, the botany, zoology and
geology of the mountains having been
thoroughly examined. The latest series
of ascents commenced in October last, DR..
Meyer and his companion, Herr Purt-
scheller, being accompanied by native of
PaDgani, though, as a rule, the tribesmen
living on the sides of the mountain, I'M
able to bear the cold of the higher reaches,
decline to 90 as far as the snow line.
The saddIe-shaped plateau above Mar
calls village, IA, go above sea level, formed
the basis of their operations. From this
point they crept upwards along the great
lava streams running in southwesterly
direction. At 16,400 feet they met the
first snow, though in much smaller quaint
ties than in July, 1887. At $40 feet,
in an atmosphere hard to breathe on ac-
account of its rarefcation, the lower
limits of the ice-cap Of Kibo were at
tanned, and there what would be called in
Switzerland the real Alpine work began.
Colored spectacles to prevent the climbers
from being blinded by the glare of the
snow, ropes to keep them from slipping,
and axes to cut footholds in the slippery
glacier, now came into use. Creyasses
were numerous, and that difficulty of
breathing, which affects men SO differently
that, on the greatest nights of the Andes
and the Himalayas yet attained, the
'szoroche," has sometimes not been
noticed, was so intense that a. halt was
necessary every few minutes. At length.
Just when their strength was all about ex-
hausted, the rim of the Kibo crater was
reached. But though they saw its highest
elevation on the south side Of the noun
tain rising some few feet above the ice
cap, they were unable to go further unless
at the risk of having to bivouc without
the least protection from the bitter cold of
an elevation of $4,000 feet above the sea
level. Having climbed $500 feet in
eleven hours, and, by discovering the
eruptive cone in the bottom of the crater.
having solved the problem of Kibo, they
considered, not without reason, that for
that occasion they had done enough.
Their next attempt was crowned with
complete success, for they reached, with
comparatively little labor. the highest