The Geology of Mount Ruwenzori and some Adjoining Regions of Equatorial Africa

Abstract

I. I ntroduction . R uwenzori is a mountain-ridge on the right bank of the Semliki branch of the Nile, between the two lakes Mwutan and Lutan Nzige (the Albert and Albert Edward Nyanzas). It ranks as the third snow-capped mountain in Africa, both in height and date of discovery. Kilimanjaro was first seen in 1848 and Kenya in 1849, and Ruwenzori only narrowly escaped detection a few years later. Speke and Grant passed near it in 1862, but its existence was not reported to them, though the natives whom they met must have known of it. Sir Samuel Baker, in 1864, approached it from the north, and reached a locality from which the mountain ought to have been visible; but he did not see the snow, and though his ‘Blue Mountain’ seems to have been Ruwenzori, he covered the whole site of the mountain with a lake. Gessi Pasha circumnavigated the Albert Nyanza in 1876 and went nearer to the mountain than the point from which it was subsequently discovered; but he also missed it. Mason Bey, in 1877, followed the same course, and though he stayed for some time for astronomical purposes within sight of Ruwenzori, he never saw it. It was reserved for Mr. Stanley, in 1888, to recognize that the white patches that appeared among the clouds for brief and at distant intervals were a snow-capped ridge. The late Capt. W. G. Stairs made an effort to ascend the mountain in 1889, and reached a level determined by aneroid