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102 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES, 
longer be seen above the western brink of the chasm, 
from tbe Logberg,” 
Turning aside from what, I dare say, was the scene 
of many an unrecorded tragedy, we descended the 
gorge of the Almanna Gja, towards the lake; and I 
took advantage of the opportunity again to examine 
its marvellous construction. The perpendicular walls of 
rock rose on either hand from the flat green sward 
that carpeted its bottom, pretty much as the waters of 
the Red Sea must have risen on each side of the 
fugitive Israelites. A blaze of light smote the face of 
one cliff, while the other lay in the deepest shadow; 
and on the rugged surface of each might still be traced 
corresponding articulations, that once had dovetailed 
into each other, ere the igneous mass was rent asunder. 
So unchanged, so recent seemed the vestiges of this 
convulsion, that I felt as if I had been admitted to 
witness one of nature’s grandest and most violent 
operations, almost in the very act of its execution. 
A walk of about twenty minutes brought us to the 
borders of the lake—a glorious expanse of water, fifteen 
miles long, by eight miles broad, occupying a basin 
formed by the same hills, which must also, I imagine, 
