FINDING A LOST VOLCANO

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 111, 6 November 1937, Page 27

FINDING A LOST VOLCANO

It might be thought impossible to lose sight ~of anything iBS large as. a mountain^ but it has,been done. Explorers once ..mislaid a... volcano—and found it again thirty-six years later on the fame spot, writes John Allan May in the "Christian Science Monitor."

The man who must take most credit for rediscovering the lost. volcano is Mr. A. M. Campion, a British Government surveyor. He was so intrigued by the mystery surrounding the mountain that he determined to settle All .arguments as to its existence once antf for all. It took him four years to do it. ■ '. ■' . ' ■:'■ ■

The mystery of the mountain had begun in 1886, -when Teleki, an Italian explorer, on a three-year expedition; passed through the territory that is now Kenya, .but was then uncharted Central Africa. He made for the southern shores of Lake Rudolph, because natives had told him tales of a '.'mountain on fire by the big waters." This was forbidden land to the natives.

-After great difficulty Teleki found the volcano. The crater was. in -full spate of activity. Three sides of the mountain were covered with molten lava.' The, fourth was-too. steep: to scale. Teleki satisfied himself with placing the .volcana on a rough map and,'giving.it his own name. He then returned to,tell the world. Bui. in 18P7 the: mystifying, news seeped through to Europe that Teleki's volcano had vanished! Native rumours had told of Lake Rudolph "swallowing the. mountains." The story was backed

up by an Englishman called Cavendish, who /^ported that Lake Rudolph had overflowed its banks and the volcano had been destroyed in a huge explosion. ■ ■

But scarcely had geographers., in Europe written the volcano down as lost when rumours came that it had appeared once more and was as active as evei\ For many years nobody knew what was the.truth.

Mr. Campion determined; to solve the mystery. He set out on. his first expedition in 1929. . His work was not aided by the fact that there was no reliable map, no reliable native guide, and that he did not know exactly what he was looking for.

He found-nothing. It seemed-that Teleki's volcano had indeed vanished.

Mr. Campion left the district on Government business, and the District Commissioner and his assistant carried on his explorations. They : reported that the volcano was there, just where Teleki had stated. . ;

■Tn 1933, Mr. Campion returned to the' district and.explored the volcano. It was no longer active. Apparently the explosion had blown its top off, for it was quite small. ■ :

The explosion..,". had had another curious effect. It placed the once great fire mountain in such a position against the neighbouring ranges that, robbed of its plume of smoke, it had become invisible to the human eye, except ,pt a certain period when the late afternoon sun shone directly upon it. For that matter, it still is invisible. .