Even the official height of the mountain, as given on the maps, was found to be inaccurate, and illustrated how vaguely the geographers knew the mountain.
That night we camped in the crater, twelve thousand feet up, and washed in a boiling sulphur spring that sprang from the rocks on the Uganda side.

Perhaps this was the boiling fountain the superstitious natives feared, for it was the only one we saw.

And perhaps the great gorge through which the river Turkwel, or Suam, flowed on its long journey north was the door that Askar had told us about.

It was the only door we saw, but Askar said the door he meant was away off somewhere else, and he was so vague and confused in his bearings that we felt his information was unreliable.
The crater of Mount Elgon has long since lost any resemblance to a volcanic crater.

It is a great valley, or bowl, surrounded by a lofty rim that in reality is a considerable chain of mountains.