Mr. Douglas Freshfield in a letter to the Times of
last Saturday gave some account of his recent journey to what has hitherto been the most mysterious mountain-range in the world,—Ruwenzori, or the Mountains of the Moon. Known since the days of Ptolemy, they were rediscovered by Stanley, who encamped at their base for a fortnight with- out realising their existence, owing to the dense screen of mist which generally surrounds them. Mr. Freshfield seems to have disproved their claim to be the highest mountains in Africa, for he puts their height at eighteen thousand feet, which is lower than Kilimanjaro. Accom- panied by a Zermatt guide, he made an attempt to ascend them, and succeeded in climbing the icefall which separates the Mubuka Valley from the upper glaciers. The weather became bad, and be wisely discontinued the further ascent, his object being exploration and not record-breaking. The snowy part of the range is small—a circle twelve miles in diameter covering all the glaciers—but the giant Alpine vegetation and the wonderful glimpses of tropical landscape make them unique among the mountains of the world.
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