A SHAKING MOUNTAIN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1014, 2 January 1911, Page 6

A SHAKING MOUNTAIN.

EXPLORERS IN PERIL. . ' A thrilling story of explorers' peril for days and nights oil' a volcano, with the earth opening in great fissures all aroundthem, and rocks and trees hurtling down the mountain side, is told (says the "Daily Neivs") by the sole companion of the late Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, Jose Lopez, who has just arrived in England from the Lake Tchad district. Lieutenant Alexander,- it will be remembered, was murdered in the French early this year, and the story by Lopez is the first personal account of the explorer's last great journey across Africa from west' to east. ■ , , It was when they had climbed 8000 ft. up the celebrated Kamertal Peak, in the Cameroons country, that Lieutenant Alexander had the rare experience of witness-, ing on the spot the great earthquake and eruption of the mountain, which lasted with continued' severity for five days. There was sufficient -warning for tho natives and some German residents to escape to the coast, but tho British traveller's curiosity tempted him to" remain and gather knowledgo of a new experience. How he and his party came alive out of tho inferno was miraculous.' For sev-, eral days and nights the shocks were as frequent as every two minutes, and the mountain seemed to leap under-liini like a live tiling. Beneath the earth the tremors rolled, with a noise as loud as thunder, and all through' the first night and following day torrential rain poured The earth opened in' huge fissures, and' scarps and ledges of rock broke away and tore down, tho mountain-side, levelling the trees in front of them. The forests and tho tall grass shook with a deafening hissing sound, while tho groat stems snapped like matches, and out of tho confusion thousands of monkeys fled screaming in terror down the slopes. Then at last the crater of the mountain burst open, belching up (lamo and throwing hu?e roclcs red-hot into the sky, so high that they appeared to dwindle to tho size of peas. These, as they fell, frequently met in collision others asccnding, and broke with a noise like exploding shells, scattering far and wide hundreds of fragments that often fell within a few feet of the explorer and his men. When the earthquake had subsided observations and photographs were taken of the crater and the lava stream befaro the party continued their advance to explore, ' the Manoiiguba Range. All the , way great difficulties wore exnerienced in getting food, for the story had gone abroad that the earthquake had been caused by the white man, who had gone up and fired his gun down the crater, thereby rousing to anger the devil, who, the natives believe, dwells within the mountain.

Boyil Alexander, after this mountainclimbing, . made his way north to Lake Tchad, and afterwards prenared for crossing the desert to the Nile. Twice ho fell ill,.and it. is believed that the second illness (blnckwater fever) affected him mentnllv. He nrently underrated the danger of forcing his ivay through the desert tribes, and was killed by tho first hostile party ho met. Since his death his voluminous diary has been recovered, and his murder avenged by a French military party. Boyd Alexander was a skilled naturalist and an accomplished writer.