about midday
Early next morning we were again afoot , and found that the character of the country had changed once again . Behind us was the wall of bamboo , as definite as if it marked the course of a river . In front was an open plain , sloping slightly upwards and dotted with clumps of tree-ferns , the whole curving before us until it ended in a long , whale-backed ridge . This we reached about midday , only to find a shallow valley beyond , rising once again into a gentle incline which led to a low , rounded sky-line . It was here , while we crossed the first of these hills , that an incident occurred which may or may not have been important . Professor Challenger , who with the two local Indians was in the van of the party , stopped suddenly and pointed excitedly to the right . As he did so we saw , at the distance of a mile or so , something which appeared to be a huge gray bird flap slowly up from the ground and skim smoothly off , flying very low and straight , until it was lost among the tree-ferns .