two hours before noon
But Adams , as he gazed at the colossal bones , was not thinking of that ; the marvel of their return filled his mind as he looked from the skeletons to where , against the evening blue , a thin wreath of smoke rose up from the camp fire which the porters had lighted . Far away south , so far away as to be scarcely discernible , a bird was sailing along , sliding on the wind without a motion of the wings . It passed from sight and left the sky stainless , and the land lay around silent with the tremendous silence of evening , and lifeless as the bones bleaching at his feet . The day after the next , two hours before noon , they passed an object which Adams remembered well . It was the big tree which Berselius had pointed out to him as having been tusked by an elephant ; and an hour after they had started from the mid-day rest , the horizon to the north changed and grew dark . It was the forest . The sky immediately above the dark line , from contrast , was extraordinarily bright and pale , and , as they marched , the line lifted and the trees grew .