Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-05-08


the Abruzzi will start in August
with a finely-equipped expedition for
Central Africa, with the intention of
exploring the great RUwenzou range
of mountains an5 ascending its high
est SUBMITS. The feat he will under
take has baffled ne efforts of every
explorer who has attempted it since
Stanley discovered these mountains
on May %, 1888. But this Italian
prince clambered &c the top of Mt
st. Elias after dozen other explorers
had given it UP. and on his only
Arctic expedition he planted his flag
nearer the north pole than any other
flag nearer the nothusdurdles 2S2S2
flag has ever waved. 1t will not be
surprising if he conquers the Ruwen-
giro mountains; and If he succeeds he
may turn his talents TO Mt. Mckinley.
the culminsting point of North
America. which explorers are finding
to be an exceedingly hard nut to
crack.
1t may seem strange that in going
to Ruwenzori the duke will be equip
ped as though for a trip over the
Himalayas But the work he has
cut out for himself may take him
half a year or longer. He will need
every mountaineering appliance and
supplies of all sorts for a long So
journ. 1t will take him some time
to cut his way through the jungle to
the snow line. He will be working
exactly under the equator, but if he
succeeds in exploring the whole range
and climbs the highest SUBMITS he
will spend months in an Arctic
climate, his men must dress as
warmly as in the polar region, and
every ounce of supplies must be car
ried on the backs of natives up the
long. steep slopes to the men who are
working in the region of perpetual
snow.
! The climate there is worse than in
most Arctic regions, for clouds
usually hide the upper attitudes; and
the high winds. the almost perpetual
fog, the drenehing mists and rains
(, the snow squalls and storms will tesy
all the courage and perseverance the
party can muster
| Any good map of Africa shows tho
Ruwenzori range, extending north
and south across the equator to the
west of Victoria Nyanz. and between
Lake Albert Edward on the south and
Albert Nyanza on the north. 1t is
so miles in length, N enormous block
: of igneous matter thrust skyward In
some ancient time out of the bowels
Of the earth The fog has never clear
ed so that the wonderful grandeur OF
Ruwenzori has been wholly revealed
to a white man throughout its extent
but it is known to have seven OF
eight peaks rising high above the
general level of the ridge
i One morning Stanley WIS trudg
ing along through the high grass
when his gunbearer suddenly cried
See, sir, what a big mountain; 1t Is
covered with salt" Stanley looked
in the direction pointed out. and
there, sure enough, was a mountain oil
prodigious hight and mass, its crown
ink SHOWS white against the blue
sky. He was sure this must be the
Ruwenzori, which the natives had
told him had something white, like
the metal of his lamp on the top.
The mountain seemed to be about
so miles away, and it was weeks be
fore the explorer discovered that II
was not an isolated summit, but only
part of a range. The fact Is that
one of these mountains had been seer
II years before by Mason Bey from
the shores of Albert Nyanza on the
north. When Stanley came home he
declared that this range was the long
lost Mountains of the Moon of Ptol
envy, which had been wandering
around on the maps of Africa since
the middle of the 18th century Al
that time an Arab geographer wrote:
From the Mountains OF the Moon
the Egyptian Nile takes its rise
Many rivers come from these noun
tains and unite in a great lake. From
this lake comes the Nile. the most
beautiful and greatest of the rivers Of
all the earth"
About so torrential streams. gath
ering the waters of countless brooks
descend the sides of Ruwenzori by
many fall and rapid to swell tbs
waters of Victoria on the east or OF
the Lake Albert system on the west
The range is thus one of the large
contributors of the Nile. Stanley's
contention that these were the ancient
Mountains of the Moon was contest
ed by some geographers, but the pre-
vailing opinion IS that Stanley was
right. The literature of the past 80
years has done more justice to Ptol
emy's African geography than all
that preceded it; and that great
geographer, in the opinion of many
leading scholars of today was the
chronicler of Ruwenzor.
None who has reviewed this ques-
ton has greater weight than DR..
Henry Schlichter, who, in his discus
sion of Ptolemy's Topography OF
Eastern Equatorial Africa" says: I'VE
have seen that the western end of
the Mountains of the Moon as de-
scribed tv Ptolemy comedies with
Ruwenzo1. and Mr. Stanley vas
therefore perfectly justified in claim
ing to have found and identified the