The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-15
CLIMBING AFRICAN PEAKS.
GREAT GLACIERS OF THE NOUN
 TAINS OF THE MOON.

Eighteen Thousand Feet-vegeta-
 tion of Upland vaIIey-views From
 the Towering Heights.
 have just returned from a journey to the glaciers of the range which claims to be Ptolemys Mountains of the Moon," and is known to modern geograptlers as Ruwenzori, writes Douglas w. Freshfeld in the London Times.
 Our party consisted of A. l.. Mum, honorary secretary of the Alpine Club; Moritz Inderbinnen Ca Zermatt guide), and myself. From Entebbe, on Lake Victoria, the beautifully situated capi- tai of the Uganda Protectorate, it is an easy fortnight's march from Fort Por- tai, the British outpost under the low northern spurs of Ruwenzori. Three days more take the travellers to the last village in the Mubuku Valley, which offers as our predecessors had proved the easiest, if not the only, access from the east to the highest part of the range.
 It was early in November when we approached the mountain. The time ot our visit, after many inquiries in Eng land from travellers or recent residents in Uganda had been mainly detern1in- ed by the printed statement of our most distinguished predecessor that Novem- Der was likely to be good month fol climbing and exploration. Unfortunate ly for our plans, it proved last year and I was told locally it generally is one of the very worst, It was not til we got to the spot that we ascribed that the fine weather months on the mountain are two-January and July The plains are then frequently wrapped in haze, but on the heights the air as rule, is relatively clear and cold, the streams run low and the swampy fiat: are partially dried up.
 We encountered from the first mos unfavora!ble conditions. A torrent oul predecessors had all waded without diff. ficulty was unfordable and had to bt bridged. The eight or nine thousand feet ascent to the head of the Mubukl Valley was an alienation of morasses brimming over under incessant cloud. bursts, of precipitous mud-slides ant rotten barricades of fallen trees, yelling pitfalls deep enough to swallow man The so-called ''rock-shelters" used bN the natives when hunting in the dry season were now no better than drip ping wells. From morning to night with too brief intervals, chilly blastl drove the teeming mists up the deel trench between the dark mountains plotting out everythingfffty yards off The universal moisture invaded oul tents, 1t permeated our clothes ant bones, and the only exercise possible was wading.
 The highest rock shelter in use Blu 1ongolo, is an hour and a half below the end of the glacier Here, for the sake of our carriers, we camped. Or the first break in the mists we sci forth on a reconnaissance. The head of the Mubuku Valley is flat-bottom- ed basin, hemmed in on all sides by black cliffs, stained gold above by mosses draped lower down in uncannS vegetation. A considerable expanse of glacier is visible on the skyline ir front spreading out its skirts broadly on the top of the cliffs to the travel CTS left, but on his right letting fal a long fold down cleft or hollow, tC within about 300 feet of the floor of tht valley. AS at Roselaui, but on a smal. Ter scale, a broken icefall is contained between steep rocks.
 It was probably the appearance O. this icefall that induced Mrs Fisher the lucky missionary lady who accom-. panied her husband thus far, to haz. ard an assertion, which has been re. gently quoted as authoritative that tht highest summits of Ruwenzori vii prove inaccessible. venture to think that it will not be very long before this prophecy goes the way of many others made oh better grounds, of a similar character. At any rate, this has beer the "sticking-point of most of the adventurers who have approached Ru. wenzori. What actually stopped then was a rock face, calling for the use of 2 rope.
 My companions, who pushed on. hop ing to make smooth track for use ir our final assault, very soon mastered this obstacle Above it, however, they were compelled to take to the glacier In about an hour, after some stone. cutting along narrow ridges, which might well prove alarming, or ever dangerous, to novlces in ice-work, the1 found themselves on the verge of the uncrevassed upper slopes, which lead te the gap south of the highest peak My companions stopped when fog again fell on them at height of 450( feet. Moritz's step-cutting was throwr away. To be overtaken by storm or the well-known snow-felds of Mont Blanc or Monte Rosa is, as has beer too often proved, perilous; to venture in fog upon those of an unknown noun tain would have been in the highest de- gree foolhardy. Our foul weather con. tinued and twenty-four hours after oul retreat to the lower valley it's torrent came down in spate which showed that had we waited longer we might have fared worse.
 Though thus defeated in our urincipa' aim we have learned enough to do a good deal toward correcting some oi the inaccurate impressions recorded by previous travellers. I will mention only a few of the most salient potts. The hightest crest is not, as has been sup posed, the bold rock peak conspicuous from the upper Mubuku Valley, but a snowy summit more to the north From Butiti, the second rest house from Fort