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ONUNDER FIORD. 193 
As the “ Reine Hortense” could not carry coals 
sufficient for the entire voyage we had set out upon, 
it had been arranged that the steamer “ Saxon ” should 
accompany her as a tender, and the Onunder Fiord, on 
the north-west coast of the island, had been appointed 
as the place of rendezvous. Suddenly wheeling round 
therefore to the right, we quitted the open sea, and 
dived down a long grey lane of water that ran on as 
far as the eye could reach between two lofty ranges 
of porphyry and amygdaloid. The conformation of 
these mountains was most curious: it looked as if the 
whole district was the effect of some prodigious crys¬ 
tallization, so geometrical was the outline of each par¬ 
ticular hill, sometimes rising cube-like, or pentagonal, 
but more generally built up into a perfect pyramid, 
with stairs mounting in equal gradations to the summit. 
Here and there the cone of the pyramid would be 
shaven off, leaving it flat-topped like a Babylonian 
altar or Mexican teocalli, and as the sun’s level rays,— 
shooting across above our heads in golden rafters from 
ridge to ridge,—smote brighter on some loftier peak 
behind, you might almost fancy you beheld the blaze 
of sacrificial fires. The peculiar symmetrical appear- 
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