Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/429

 KTMMA-NJARO. 845 Kamoroons by about -5,000, and the Abyasinian Siraen by 3,700 feet. It is also much loftier than Mount Wosha of Galluland, to which Antoine d'Abbadie assigns an altitude of 1.400 feet, and has no other rival on the African continent except Mount Keniu, which, however, uccording to Thomson, does not exceed 18,400 feet. Nevertheless Kilima-Njaro does not appear to have been known to the ancients, unless it was included in one of their numerous *' Mountains of the Moon." The first mention made of it, evidently from the reports of the Portu- guese visitors to Mombaz, is due to the Spanish geographer, Encizo, who calls it the " Ethiopijn Olympus," adding tbut it is rich in gold, inhabited by wild boars and by people who eat locusts. The missionary Rebmann first of modern explorers beheld the superb mountain with its glittering snowy crest in the year 1848. But some erudite geographers, such as Desborough Cooley, having already mapiHjd out an inland Africa from their inner consciousness, immediately questioned this discovery, and suggested that Rebmann must have been the victim of some mirage or other hallucination. Nevertheless Rebmann 's report was confirmed the next year by Krapf, another missionary, who after crossing the Bura range penetrated to the very foot of the great mountain. A farther advance was made in 1861 and 1862, when the explorers Von der Decken and Thornton scaled its southern slopes to a height of al)out 10,500 feet, although still far below the lower level of the perpetual snows. Since then Kilima-Njaro has been visited by New, Fischer, Thomson, and especially Johnston and Meyer. Johnston spent six months on its southern slopes studying its natural history, and exploring its upper parts to within a short distance of its crest ; while Meyer, after five days of ascent, succeeded in 1887 in reaching the highfst summit, close to the rim of the crater itself ; but he found it impossible to scale an icy pinnacle which rose about 150 feet still higher. The mountain cannot fail henceforth to become one of the chief centres of attraction for African travellers, for it has now been included within the limits of the German possessions. Hence it will no doubt soon be connected with Mombaz and the other ports on the east coast, if not by easy highway's of communication, at least by well-beaten tracts and stations where travellers may renew their supplies. This huge volcanic mass is no less than 60 miles long from cast to west, and about 50 in the transverse direction, with a total periphery of at least 160 miles. It is thus twice the size of Etna, whose lower slopes are sti 1 vast enough to support a population of over three hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants. Kilima-Njaro consists in reality of two distinct volcanoes connected together by an elevated saddle-back. The central dome and culminating point, falling very little if at all short of 19,000 feet, takes the name of Kibo, while Kimawenzi, the lesser cone, attains an altitude of 16,250 feet. But when seen from the east foot, the loftier summit is completely masked by the sharp peak of Kimawenzi. On the north, west, and east sides the entire mass slopes regularly up to the higher escarpments. But on the south side numerous igneous cones have been ojxsned near the base of the twin peaks, and the eruptive rocks that have been discharged from these cones have graduf Uy developed a broad terrace with a mean elevation