about four
o'clock in the afternoon
This river , which takes its rise in the distant mountains of the Mimbres , passes under various names through an immense extent of sandy barren country , the arid monotony of which is interrupted only by the ravines hollowed by the waters , which in their erratic course , ravage without fertilising . The reader must imagine himself at a spot distant about sixty leagues from Tubac . The sun , inclining towards the west , was already darting oblique rays ; it was the hour when the wind , although still hot , no longer seems to come out of the mouth of a furnace . It was about four o'clock in the afternoon , and light white clouds tinted with rose colour , indicated that the sun had run two-thirds of his course ; above , in the deep blue sky , an eagle hung motionless over the desert , the only visible inhabitant of the air . From the height where the king of birds balanced himself majestically , his eye could perceive on the immense plain , many human beings , some of whom were in groups , and others at so great a distance apart as to be visible to him alone , and not to each other . Just beneath the soaring bird was a kind of irregular natural circle formed by a hedge of cacti , with their fleshy leaves and thorny points , with which were mingled the pale foliage of the _ bois de fer _ . At one end of this hedge was an elevated piece of ground two or three feet high , with a flat top , which overlooked it on all sides .