552 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



Bennet's peninsula the water was more open, and at 

 five p.m. we passed Cape Franklin and ran into tlie 

 Fjord. 



What strange feelings arose within us as we advanced 

 into these lonely waters, as yet uncleft by the keel of any 

 vessel. 



At first we steered along the northern bank of the 

 Fjord, stretching in a west-north-westerly direction, and 

 afterwards changing to a north-westerly; but as we 

 noticed a larger branch dividing into several arms running 

 westward, we decided upon following that first, as it 

 would most likely take us deeper into the interior. 



Lieutenant Payer gives the following excellent descrip- 

 tion of this wonderful district : — " We had entered a 

 basin, the shores of which were formed by rocks, which 

 for glorious form and colour I had never seen equalled. 

 Here were congregated all the peculiarities of the Alpine 

 world : huge walls, deep erosion-fissures, wild peaks, 

 mighty crevassed glaciers, raging torrents, and waterfalls ; 

 which in Europe, as a rule, come but singly. All these 

 pictures of wild beauty were taken in at a glance. To 

 me the impression given by the high towering rocky 

 mountains of the basin was that of some fairy tale. 

 A colossal cubic rock on the small basis of a tono'ue 



o 



of land stretched itself far into the Fjord, rising out of 

 the blue water to a height of at least 5600 feet ; regular 

 reddish-yellow, black, and light stripes, showing the 

 different layers of the stone. The terraces and towers 

 on its edges resembled a ruined castle; we therefore 

 called it the Devil's Castle. 



" Never in the Alps had I seen anything even ap- 

 proaching this in grandeur. Here a diminutive Matter- 



