nine in the morning
-- Mount Mendif . From the moment of their departure , the travellers moved with great velocity . They longed to leave behind them the desert , which had so nearly been fatal to them . About a quarter-past nine in the morning , they caught a glimpse of some signs of vegetation : herbage floating on that sea of sand , and announcing , as the weeds upon the ocean did to Christopher Columbus , the nearness of the shore -- green shoots peeping up timidly between pebbles that were , in their turn , to be the rocks of that vast expanse . Hills , but of trifling height , were seen in wavy lines upon the horizon . Their profile , muffled by the heavy mist , was defined but vaguely . The monotony , however , was beginning to disappear .