It seemed as if one of Helbesmer's raised maps lay at my feet.

I could see deep valleys intersecting each other in every direction, precipices like low walls, lakes reduced to ponds, rivers abbreviated into streams.

On my right were numberless glaciers and innumerable peaks, some plumed with feathery clouds of smoke.

The undulating surface of these endless mountains, crested with sheets of snow, reminded one of a stormy sea.

If I looked westward, there the ocean lay spread out in all its magnificence, like a mere continuation of those flock-like summits.