The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-07-04
THE SNOW MOUNTAINS
SNOW-CAPPED SUBMITS OF
RUWENzORI RANGE.
Impression That h Was a Single
Mountain Is Corrected-It Proves to
BE a Mountain Range from 10 to 80
Miles Long.

H L
~ploration know that a long period Of
investigation and the work of quite
a number of explorers is usually re-
CURED to give the world a fairly ac-
curate idea of any new region, avs the
New York Sun. The first explorer
comes home with very interesting in
formation, but he rarely has time to
make careful studies. There is much
he does not see and he makes plumbers 1
with regard to geographic or other
features that he has only specifically
examined. The next explorer returns
with new information about the same
region, corrects plumbers made by his
predecessor and makes new plumbers
OF his own. Thus explorer succeeds
explorer, each showing the region in
some new light, each eliminating some
mistaken impressions concerning it till,
at last, we drive from the sur total
of work done. a fairly accurate and
comprehensive idea of the new re-
gion. The explorations of the very in
teresting mountain region of Ruwen-
zori, in Central Africa between the
north ends of Lake Albert Edward4on
the west and Victoria Nyanza on the
east, is the latest illustration of the
fact that the joint labors of a numb
of explorers are required to give
world the real facts about little-knot.
territory. When Stanley came home
from his Emin Pasha expedition in
1889 he reported a great sno noun
tain called Ruwenzori by the natives.
One of his party, Lieut.. Stairs, as
cended the mountain to a height of
10000 feet and came to the conclu-
sion that the different snow peaks he
saw were SO many fragments of the
broken rim of an old volcano. The i'm
preston made by the report of this
discovery was simply that another
great snow mountain had been dis
covered and that it was surpassed in
height only by K~ilimanjaro and Kenia
among African SUBMITS. The work
of DR.. Stuhlmann in 1890 did not re-
this impression, but, while Stairs
thought he saw the broken-down rim
of an old volcano, Stuhlmann thought
these peaks were mountains of defor-
nation, or, in other words, that they
had been formed by the crushing, up
lifting and forcing together of the
rocks. Then came Scott Elliott's ex-
plorations, in which he still spoke of
Ruwenzori a a single mountain. For
twelve years, therefore, geographers
have spoken and written of Ruwen-
zori as a great eminence dominating
lesser peaks to the north and south
of it. But now come the description
of Mr.. ]. E. s.. Moore, who has made
a careful study of this region and
gives a different impression of it from
that derived from the reports of his
predecessors. He says Ruwenzori is
not a single mountain, but is a noun
tain range from seventy to eighty
miles in length. The mountains arc
not of volcanic origin, but of deforma-
ton, and form a succession of ridges
very lofty and covered with snow. Be-
tween the ridges are deep valleys and
there is not merely one line of ridges
but a series of parallel ridges, so that
this mountain region has important
breadth east and west as we'll as sew.
enty or eighty miles Of extension north
n south. The natives do not apply
the name Ruwenzori to one mountain
but to the entire range, and they have
distinctive names for the various sum
mits. Scott Elliot said the highes
peak, or Ruwenzori, is 1880 feet il
height, but Mr.. Moore declares that
as far as he knows, it is as yet quit,
impossible to determine which of tn,
numerous snowy peaks in the rang,
is the highest, much less to give it
exact height. One of the highest 0
the mountains is Ingomwimbi. 1t i
a part of the central mass of the range
Moore assembled this mountain an,
found it a very steep and difficult as
cent, sometimes along the edges O
yawning chasms and always over slip
perry rocks or great fields of snow an
ice. From the summit he could Sc
the great central mass of wild and yer
lofty mountains, at least four of who's
peaks are snow-capped; on the mort
and south of the central mass ar
deep valleys and beyond them ar
other white snow peaks to the mort
n south. AS far as he could te
this central portion was the highes
part of the range, but he is not Gel
tain that this is so.