seven o'clock
Shortly after six , when we were above Grantland , another of the great trans-Arctic passenger liners went over us . The San Francisco Night line , for Mid-Eurasia and points South . It was crossing Greenland , from San Francisco , Vancouver , Edmonton , to the North Cape , the Russias , and African points south of Suez . At seven o'clock , with the sun circling the lower sky , the fog under us suddenly dissipated completely . We were over the Polar ocean . Masses of drift ice and slush , but for the most part surprisingly clear . At eight o'clock , flying low -- no more than a thousand feet -- we sighted the steel tower with foundations sunk into the ocean 's depths which marks the top of our little Earth .