text:  Scarcely five minutes had elapsed since the distant pinnacles of the mountains had appeared to us as huge phantom-like figures of a silvery white dimly marked out upon a dark star-spangled ground; now the whole immense chain blazed like volcanoes covered with glowing lava rising out of the darkness that still lingered on their flanks and bases visible and wonderful witnesses to the omnipotence of _him_ who said "Let there be light and there was light