once more been hidden. As a result, the climate is very humid, the rainfall being probably at least 100 in. annually, and the slopes are furrowed by numberless streams, the most important fed by the glaciers of the upper region, and afterwards flowing in deeply cut valleys between the outer spurs. From the innermost recesses between Mounts Stanley, Speke and Baker, the main branches of the Mobuku descend to the east, while the four principal streams on the west unite to form the Butagu, the drainage on both sides ultimately finding its way to the Semliki, either directly or through Lake Dweru and the Albert Edward Nyanza.
As in other ranges of Central Africa the vegetation displays well-marked zones, varying with the altitude; but owing to the lower level to which the cloud descends on the west (probably an outcome of the general climatic régime of Central Africa, as the range lies between the east African plateau and the relatively low-lying basin of the Congo), the limits of the several zones reach a lower level on the west than on the east. They have been defined as follows by Mr R. B. Woosnam of the British Museum scientific expedition of 1906–7:—
| Zones. | Upper Limits (East Side). |
| Grass | 6,500 ft. |
| Forest | 8,500 ,, |
| Bamboos | 10,000 ,, |
| Tree heaths | 12,500 ,, |
| Lobelias and Senecios | 14,500 ,, |
above which is the summit region of snow and bare rock. The boundaries between the zones are not of course hard and fast lines, but merely indicate the levels between which the respective forms are specially characteristic, though they occur also in higher or lower zones. The forest zone is perhaps the best marked, being visible from a distance as a dark ring. On the west it merges in part with the low-lying forest of the Semliki valley. Owing to the abundance of moisture, mosses, hepaticae and lichens are prevalent in several of the zones, and bogs, with Vaccinium and other low-growing plants, are common above the forest zone. Helichrysums are abundant in the zone immediately below the snow, where they form large bushes. The larger mammals are found chiefly on the lower slopes, but bushbuck, pigs, leopards, monkeys, a hyrax and a serval cat occur at higher altitudes. The birds include kites, buzzards, ravens, sun-birds, touracos, a large swift, and various warblers and other small kinds. The upper limit of human settlement, with cultivation of colocasia and beans, has been placed at 6700 ft.
Attempts have been made to identify the range with the “Mountains of the Moon” of Ptolemy and other ancient writers, the snows of which were thought to feed the Nile lakes. But in view of the extreme vagueness of the statements and the absence of all detailed knowledge of the geography, it is far more likely that the rumours of snowy mountains really referred to Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro, especially as they seem to have been obtained rather from the east coast than from the direction of the Nile. In modern times the existence of a snowy range in this part of Africa was first made known by Sir Henry Stanley during the Emin Pasha relief expedition of 1887–89, though hints of high mountains had been obtained by Stanley himself and by Romolo Gessi in 1876 and by others from the neighbourhood of the Albert Nyanza. Stanley named the main mass Ruwenzori, and outlying eastern peaks he called Mt. Gordon Bennett, Mt. Lawson, Mt. Edwin Arnold, &c.—the last named lying N.E. of Lake Dweru. Subsequently Stanley’s own name was given to the chief summit. One of Stanley’s officers, Lieut. Stairs, ascended the western slopes to over 10,000 ft. in 1889, and partial ascents were afterwards made by Dr Stuhlmann, Mr Scott Elliot, Mr J. E. Moore, Sir Harry Johnston, Mr Douglas Freshfield, and others. Early in 1906 some of the secondary ridges above the snowline were scaled by Messrs Grauer, Tegart and Maddox, and by Dr Wollaston and other members of the British Museum expedition, while later in the year the duke of the Abruzzi led a well-equipped expedition, including various scientists, to the upper parts of the range, and with the help of trained Alpine guides ascended not only the culminating twin summits (which he named Margharita and Alexandra after the queens of Italy and England), but all the principal snow-clad peaks. The expedition produced for the first time a detailed map of the upper region, and threw much light on the geology and natural history of the range.
Authorities.—Sir H. M. Stanley, In Darkest Africa (London, 1890; F. Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pasha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894); G. F. Scott-Elliot, A Naturalist in Mid-Africa (London, 1896); J. E. S. Moore, “Tanganyika,” &c., Geog. Jnl. (January 1901); To the Mountains of the Moon (London, 1901); Sir H. H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (London, 1902); The Duke of the Abruzzi, in Geog. Jnl. (February 1907); R. B. Woosnam, ibid. (December 1907); F. de Filippi, Ruwenzori (London, 1908), the general account of the Abruzzi expedition, and Il Ruwenzori, Parte Scientifica (2 vols., Milan, 1909); A. R. F. Wollaston, From Ruwenzori to the Congo (London, 1908); R. G. T. Bright, “The Uganda-Congo Boundary," Geog. Jnl. (1909). (E.He)
RUYSBROEK (or Ruysbroeck), JAN VAN (1293–1381), Dutch mystic, was born at Ruysbroek, near Brussels, in 1293. In 1317 he was ordained priest and became vicar of St Gudule, Brussels. When sixty years of age he withdrew with a few companions to the monastery of Groenendael, near Waterloo, giving himself to meditation and mystical writing, and to a full share of the practical tasks of the society. He was known as
the “Ecstatic Teacher,” and formed a link between the Friends of God and the Brothers of the Common Life, sects which helped to bring about the Reformation. Ruysbroek insisted that “the soul finds God in its own depths,” and noted three stages of progress in what he called “the spiritual ladder” of Christian
attainment: (1) the active life, (2) the. inward life, (3) the contemplative life. He did not teach the fusion of the self in God, but held that at the summit of the ascent the soul still preserves its identity. His works, of which the most important were De vera contemplatione and De septem gradibus amoris, were published in 1848 at Hanover; also Reflections from the Mirror of a Mystic (1906) and Die Zierde der geistlichen Hochzeit (1901).
See Rufus M. Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, pp. 308–14 (1909); M. Maeterlinck, Ruysbroek and the Mystics, with selections from The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage (tr. by J. T. Stoddart, London, 1894); and art. Mysticism.
RUYSDAEL (or Ruisdaal), JACOB VAN (c. 1628–1682), the most celebrated of the Dutch landscapists, was born at Haarlem. He appears to have studied under his father Izaak Ruysdael, a landscape painter, though other authorities make him the pupil of Berghem and of Albert van Everdingen The earliest date that appears on his paintings and etchings is 1645. Three years later he was admitted a member of the gild of St Luke in Haarlem; in 1659 he obtained the freedom of the city of Amsterdam, and in 1668 his name appears there as a witness to the marriage of Hobbema. During his lifetime his works were little appreciated, and he seems to have sutiered from poverty. In 1681 the sect of the Mennonites, with whom he was connected, petitioned the council of Haarlem for his admission into the almshouse of the town, and there the artist died on the 14th of March 1682.
The works of Ruysdael may be studied in the Louvre and the National Gallery, London, and in the collections at the Hague, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Dresden. His favourite subjects are simple woodland scenes, similar to those of Everdingen and Hobbema. He is especially noted as a painter of trees, and his rendering of foliage, particularly of oak leafage, is characterized by the greatest spirit and precision. His views of distant cities, such as that of Haarlem in the possession of the marquess of Bute, and that of Katwijk in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, clearly indicate the influence of Rembrandt. He frequently paints coast-scenes and sea-pieces, but it is in his rendering of lonely forest glades that we find him at his best. The subjects of certain of his mountain scenes seem to be taken from Norway, and have led to the supposition that he had travelled in that country. We have, however, no record of such a journey, and the works in question are probably merely adaptations from the landscapes of Van
