Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/433

MOUNT ELGON. 849 I conditions are much the same as those of its southern rival. Like it, the Grey Mountain is also frequently wrapped in fogs, being usually shrouded in mists during the greater part of the day, unrobing itself only in the evening at the hour of the setting sun, or else at dawn when struck by the first solar rays. The existence of Eenia was unknown in Europe before the year 1849, when it was first mentioned by the missionary, Krapf ; but no traveller has yet succeeded in climbing the slopes of this volcano. Even Thomson, who approached nearest to it, surveyed only its eastern face, and that at some distance. I^ike Kilima- Njaro, Kenia discharges much more water by its southern valleys than on the other slopes of its vast periphery. Mount Elgon and its Caves. West of Kenia other mountain masses, ranges, or isolated eminences, follow in continuous succession as far as the shores of Victoria Nyanza and the banks of the Nile. A chain of lofty mountains, to which Thomson has given the name of Aberdare, runs south-east and north-west in the same direction as the general axis of all the uplands in Masailand. Lake Baringo is also dominated by some elevated heights, which rise above both sides of the great volcanic fissure. Lastly, to the north-east of Victoria Nyanza appears the superb cone of Mount Elgon or Ligonyi, which has an altitude of no less than 14,000 feet, and which, like most of the isolated mountains of this region, is an extinct volcano. In the tuffa sides of this mountain deep caves or pits have been excavated, or at least enlarged, by the hand of man. One of these pits, examined by Thomson, was found to be 30 feet deep, 100 feet long, and about 20 broad, cut perpendicularly out of a volcanic agglomerate of great compactness. " In the centre of this pit, or (as it may have been) mouth of a cave, stood several cows, and a number of the usual beehive arrangements for storing grain. On the side opposite me were the ojjenings of several huts, which were built in chambers out of sight, and which only showed the doorways, like the entrances to a dovecot. In and out of these were children running in a fashion thoroughly suggestive of the lower animals, especially as seen in the midst of their strange surroundings. On inquiring as to who made this curious excavation, I was told that it was God's work. ' IIow,' said they, 'could we with our puny implements ' (exhibiting a toy -like axe, their only non- warlike instrument), 'cut out a hole like this? And this is nothing in com- parison with others which you may see all round the mountain, 8ee there, and there, and there ! These are of such great size that they penetrate far into utter darkness, and even we have not seen the end of them. In some there are large villages with entire herds of cattle. And yet you ai-k who made them! They are God's work.' " There was absolutely no tradition regarding these caves among the people. 'Our fathers lived here, and their fathers did the same,' was the invariable reply to all my questions. Clearly there was no clue in that direction. And yet the caves bore incontestable evidence on the face of them that they had neither