MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 225, 20 September 1905, Page 9

MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON.

wo 3LSf" iECTIC ' rmte of Abbruzzi started in Aug. i finelv-eqmpped expedition; *& f Africa. with the intention , for Cental Ruwerzori range ! rfep, 3i?iS its high-l of feat he has under - , the efforts of every j uiea nas s atteTnpte( i it si nee | I ?di=covered these mountains on j £tanle l 7«P But this Italian Prince I Majr Lα to the top of Mount >t. ; £lamb ltta«io7en other explorers ha,' S* 5 tL and on his only Arctic ex- : 2'Planted his flag nearer the , ?Tp£ t£n any other flag has I * 0 JvJf B may seem strange that *"JZI to Euwenzori the Duke will fc =™£Jd a « thoua-h for a trip over fc But the work h* has ! rake inn some time to i %HISWATUPTHEOITrHTHE j U JT3GLE the snow-line. He will be working ' itiv ifthe equator, but if he I in exploring the whole range 2d climbs the highest summits he will , Snd months in an arctic climate., his ; £ must dress as warmly as in tne ; ™lar iwons, and every ounce ot sup- , £ m it be' carried on the backs of ; Zl of perpetual snow. The climate there is worse than in most arctic reiLs &r usually hide the upSr altitudes: and the high winds, the almost perpetual fog. the drenching mists and rains, the snow squall? and ■ -tonus will test all the courage and • ,er=everance the party can muster. Any *ood map of Africa shows the Ruwenzori range, extending north and south across the' equator to the. west of Vie- I toria Xvanza. and between Lake Albert I Edward oa the south and Albert >>- ! anza on the north. It i≤ eighty miles ■ in length, an enormous block of igneous matter tlirost skyward in some ancient j time ont of the hotels of the earth. I Tie fos has never cleared, so that the wonderful grandeur of the Ruwenzori lias never been wholly. SEVEALED TO A WHITE MAX 'fhrongfiout its extent, but it is known ■ in have seven or eight peaks rising high i above the general level of the ridge. One morning Stanley was trudging along | through the high grass when his pun | iEarer" suddenly" cried:—"See. sir. ivhat a bis mountain: it is covered with salt." Stanley looked in the direction pointed out, and there, sure enough, was a mountain of prodigious height and mas. its crowning snows white against tie blue sky. He was sure this must j is the Ruwenzori. which the natives ' lad told T"'™ had something white, like '■ the metal of his lamp on the top. The ! mountain seemed to be about fifty miles j away, and it was weeks before the ex- ! jlorer discovered that it was not an isolated summit, but only part of a mige. The fact is that one of these , mountains had been seen eleven iffnre Irj Mason Bey from the shorps of Albert Kracza oa the north. WVn Stanley came home he declared thit thi* nnge was the long-lost Mountains of the Moon of Ptolemy, which had been wandering around oa the nraps of At- | rica since the middle of the fifteenth j century. At that time an Arab jreo- i grapher wrote: —"Froai the Mountain* j oi the iloon the Esryptian Nile takes ; its nee. Many rivers come from these j mountains, and unite in a great lake, j From this lake comes the Nile, the most ! beautiful and *TBE GREATEST OF THE RIVERS OF . ALL THE EARTH." 7 About 60 torrential streams, gather- . ing the waters of countless brouks, de- j asnd tke sides of Ruwenzori by many a fell aad rapid to swell tbe waters oi j nfictoria. on tie east or of the Lake j Albert system oe the west. The range is thus one of the large contributor-- to ile 5He. Stanleys contention that ' tiee were the ancient Mountains of the i Moon was contested by some geograph- ! as, hut tke prevailing opinion is r hat '■ Stanley was right. The literature of the '' past 30 years has done more justice to i Ptolemy's African geography than all feit preceded it: and that great geo-j papker, in the opinion of many leading ! scholars of to-day, was the chronicler j of Ruwenzori. Xo one knows how high ] iie peaks of its range really are. Stanley j a , -! the range projected " about 15.000; Set above the trough in which Lakes | Albert Edward and Albert lie. and a≤ this trough is more than 2000 feet above ' tie sea, the height of the mountains, according to this estimate, would be bewani 17,000 and 18,000 feet. Lieut, of the Stanley expedition, the j tost man to attempt to climb the j nseaed an altitude of 10.677 feet above sea. He said the altitude of the j atw peak above Mm was probably 6000 ' *«, maSang the mountain, say. "16.600 2«Mgh: bet he could plainly' see that *™ *as not the highest peak in the «Dge- The latest to attempt the as- «* ws Davies. the Swiss naturalist. '<■ year. He made fine collections on ; ** slopes of the range, but ! ICE ABOVE BAFFLED HIM ! JiNfc an ms predecessors. Some of I ffion n mentioned are expert ! Waiters, but there are a number of ; gAthe.higher latitudes has thus far £f- The slopes are so difficult of SthtUtt^ 3 before esplorers they are travelLing in a ft™« n«r the freezing point, and from }h S aWe t0 endure this that the ? have been leaSd I ° r y ears in th « super4adel t^f 1 of lower alti,dda ye€ br i aSC9n 4 the - v ' are trst i lo 4that m v' ? reei P itou s walls of « drramTei ite<i only by paßs'tf j? ; thea tne r run up against when the 7 reAcll the ■•"•JeSS 5 -* 11,7 find c °adition 3 that I t* "ErSF BO^ without a com - n °? ' and none of them &er e With this equipment. *bor c £i° to heI P them, for the ? are the pioade, l uate means of ■^SdSir 01 ° f P rov^n 2 shelter lUnie oithi.T^Tr cS * Above 13 -°OO feet t **"«*&£% *T d a P kce - here f^tfttjl? Bl at night, for the Htl 10 ? 3 the ice are extSer e sJ; t ° add to their difficuli£ extend clear aroiind 900 ° feet the >" of wet moss and *to which the cipher ¥**&> >«?? - Tbe lt is simply - to cioss aVi ...