The New York herald., 1920-01-11

until 1914. about a mile in width. From
then until the time we came through il
had been gradually closing UP and is now
only about one hundred yards across
This is to be accounted for oy the near
proximity on the northern bank of the
lake of volcanic mountain which early
in 1914 suddenly became active, the lava
| from it running into the water on the
side of the passage nearest to it, thu.
gradually filling in this part of the
lake. The filling in process is also con.
siderably accelerated by other eruptons
under water, which we were Informed by
the missionaries occur regularly every
eight days. We were a day late for wit
Messing one OF them. but we were informed
that on these occasions the water is blown
up to great height and with it lava and
! tones from the bed of the lake. These dis
| turbances, of course, kill, hundreds Of fish
which are collected by the natives. who
come from miles around on the day wher
an eruption is due for this purpose.
Natives ForetoId the war.
In the early part of 1914 when the vol
cano which has caused the filling in of
the lake first became active, il was taken
as sign, and foretold by the natives
that there would very soon be a big war
there being a superstition among the
natives of these parts that every time a
fresh volcano starts it is a sign that there
is going to be fighting of some sort and
by certain indications they profess to be
able TO tell whether many countries will
be involved.
The whole of this volcanic region Is most
interesting. Large areas of il are one
mass of solid lava without a vestige of
vegetation in sight, and there is no doubt
that there are caves and grottOs that
would be well worth exploration from q
geological point of view We. however
did not so further than the entrances 10
some of them. From some OF these en-
frances we could see the water OF large
subterraneau rivers flowing away UNDER
ground. Probably these had their origin
in the lake, but whether they came out
again could only be determined by eXplora-
tion. and this was not the object of our eN-
pedition, though had We known more about
these parts before we started, and that
we should be delayed so long here, We
should certainly have provided ourselves
with better equipment for this purpose.
We had started, from Uganda. intending
to shoot elephant and other big game in the
Congo. but when we arrived in Kigal we
received information about very rare
type of gorilla which was supposed TO ex-
list on Mount Mibreno. so we decided
mountain to proceed in search of the
gorilas before going after elephant, and
thus we found ourselves in Kissegne.
Our carriers eventually arrived and we
Immediately started toward Mount Mi
breno. From the time we left Kissegne the
travelling was all uphill and very hard
going, but was more or less compensated
for by the beautiful country we passed
through. short grass and scattered trees
on the low lands and dense forest on the
mountains. The first day We followed a
river. broken by several beautiful water
fails, and on the banks Of which grew
many varieties of grass and Towering
shrubs. Nothing of particular interest
happened, but we passed through piemy
village without. however. catching sight
OF any Of the inhabitants, they having no
apubt heard that we were coming and
being naturally very shy had taken 10
the surrounding forest. but we became
acquainted with two of them later on and