midnight
Every heart and every head was bowed , so awful , so sublime was the magnitude of the discovery . Many shed tears . The camp was pitched and the rest of the day given up to writing voluminous accounts of the marvel , and correcting astronomical tables to fit it . Toward midnight a demoniacal shriek was heard , then a clattering and rumbling noise , and the next instant a vast terrific eye shot by , with a long tail attached , and disappeared in the gloom , still uttering triumphant shrieks . The poor damp laborers were stricken to the heart with fright , and stampeded for the high grass in a body . But not the scientists . They had no superstitions .