The Stocker brother's 'berg report

Fascinating read, thanks Viking!

I'm busy trying to piece together the passes and peaks referred to in the Mnweni area and it's not quite adding up... Initially, I thought the North Peak of the "Segwana Cirque" must be the North Peak of the Saddle, based on the fact that he says they headed up the right-hand tributary of the "Tonyalana", which I presume to be the Rockeries Pass valley (Ntonjelana eshonalanga). This would imply that the "side gully running down from the west cliffs of the cirque" would be the Nguza Pass side gully??

However, then he refers to their next expedition heading up the left tributary of the "Tonyalana", which should be the Ntonjelana Pass valley (Ntonjelana ephumalanga) but then seems to be referring to gazing across at Mponjwane Peak from the escarpment near Mponj Cave. Does this mean that "Imponjwana Pass" is actually Rockeries Pass, meaning that their previous mission up to the "Segwana Cirque" would have been up the Mnweni Valley/Cutback instead?

All theories welcome!

Also interesting to note is that if he is in fact referring to gazing across the chasm to Mponjwane Peak, that the story about the names for Cathedral Peak and Mponjwane being accidentally switched would have happened before the 1880s?

Thanks Viking, interesting reading.

It's a pity the map referred to in the article is not included. I have seen the map before (in one of Reg Pearse's books I think) although I can't recall all the detail now and that makes the layout description in the article a lot clearer.

I wonder which "Champagne Castle Pass" is?

My guess would be Ship's Prow North Fork (Cathkin Mountain Pass).

Here is a scan of of the Stocker map from Pearce's Barrier of Spears first edition. It appears in the other two editions but at a smaller size. The text is almost unreadable as it is so small, but you can make out most of it if you zoom in. I might give it a little Photoshop makeover and recreate the text, then overlay the whole on to modern maps, if I can get some recognisable points to georeference it.

Thanks Bobby, it would be great to see the map overlayed on a modern map, but I suspect the map will have some scale inconsistencies which would complicate that.

Thanks Bobby - that makes sense now. The Stocker brothers have what we call the Ntonjelana ephumalanga (Ntonjelana Pass Valley) as the "Little Umnweni", which would mean that their two "Tonyalana" tributaries are actually the Nguza & Rockeries streams, which matches their report much better.

i.e. "Segwana Cirque" is The Saddle & "Imponjwana Pass" is indeed Rockeries Pass.