Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 448
did not rise more than two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, or about one
thousand five hundred feet above the plain.
We have intentionally omitted the part of Barth's quote in which he discusses Mt Kamalle
because it is too far south for us, and we have ignored his excitement about Mt Mindif,
because he got this seriously wrong, not only in terms of its geographical position but also
concerning its height. It almost seems as if he was too carried away by the experience to
observe what was right in front of him. Still, there is another mention of Magar in a footnote
(ibid:397f) when he connects it to 'Gulug', meaning Mt Gulak, which he considers to be
'situated on the offshoots of the mountain range, then keeping on Magar, which seems to be
the highest elevation, and from hence to Sugur'. We think he might be referring to the ZiverOupay massif, which is indeed known as the highest range in the Mandara Mountains.
Figure 26c: Reconstructed first view of Barth's 'Wandala mountains' from Palamari
Figure 26d: Reconstructed second view of Barth's 'Wandala mountains' from Mutube
Figure 26e: Reconstructed third view of Barth's 'Wandala mountains' from Isge
If we look at Figure 26e we can probably recognise the Tur heights, and also parts of the
Ziver-Oupay massif behind looking rather like a table, and we infer that this might be part of
Barth's Magar. We therefore like to identify the mountain chain situated between Mt Legga in
the north and Mt Magar in the south as including not only the Dghweɗe and Gvoko massifs,
and the heights of Tur and the Ziver-Oupay massif, but also the Sukur massif as its most
southern extension. We have not marked Sukur separately in the reconstruction, and are not
entirely sure whether we have correctly identified the Futu massif.
If we examine Barth's second view from after Yerimari on his way to Molghoy, passing by
our Mulgwe and Mutube (see Figure 4), in Figure 26d we recognise the visibility of the
Guduf saddle. We see how the Zelidva spur forms a separate range to the Dghweɗe massif,
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