From Ruwenzori to the Congo by A.F.R. Wollaston (1908).

What makes "From Ruwenzori to the Congo" (1908) by A.F.R. Wollaston particularly fascinating is the chaotic, last-minute way its author ended up on the historic expedition that inspired it.

The Last-Minute Recruit

Alexander "Sandy" Wollaston—a physician, botanist, and future Mount Everest explorer—had no idea the expedition even existed until just days before it sailed. In October 1905, the British Museum of Natural History was preparing to launch a massive scientific venture to explore the remote, snow-capped Ruwenzori Mountains (historically linked to the fabled "Mountains of the Moon").

Only a day or two before departure, Wollaston accidentally found out that the field party desperately needed a doctor. He immediately marched into the British Museum, volunteered, was accepted on the spot, and had to frantically scramble to catch a boat to Africa to overtake the rest of the team.

Making Mountaineering History on "Leftovers"

The primary directive from the British Museum was to collect biological specimens, not scale peaks. Because of this, the museum hadn't supplied the team with proper mountaineering gear.

However, Wollaston was an avid Alpine Club member and couldn't resist the ice-capped peaks towering above them. In early 1906, he and two teammates decided to push up the glaciers anyway. They managed to achieve historic early ascents on the massif using a completely makeshift collection of "leftover" gear:

An old ice axe left behind by a previous explorer.

A single 25-foot length of Alpine rope.

A pair of crampons borrowed from an Austrian traveller they crossed paths with in the mountains.

During this trek, Wollaston made early glaciological observations, and one of the major peaks in the range was later named Wollaston Peak in his honour.

Cross-Continental Adventure

While the expedition's main work ended in East Africa, Wollaston didn't turn around and head home. As the book's title implies, he used the conclusion of the British Museum expedition as a springboard to cross the entire equatorial belt of the continent, traveling from the heights of Uganda all the way through the dense, volatile territory of the Congo Free State to the Atlantic coast—a massive and perilous undertaking for a naturalist at the turn of the 20th century.

160mm x 225mm x 50mm

Binding fishmothed; foxed. Complete, all maps and illustrations present.

R2,000