five o’clock in the afternoon
Nothing on the horizon , except near four o'clock in the afternoon a long steamer to the west , running on our opposite tack . Its masting was visible for an instant , but it could n't have seen the Nautilus because we were lying too low in the water . I imagine that steamboat belonged to the Peninsular & Oriental line , which provides service from the island of Ceylon to Sidney , also calling at King George Sound and Melbourne . At five o'clock in the afternoon , just before that brief twilight that links day with night in tropical zones , Conseil and I marveled at an unusual sight . It was a delightful animal whose discovery , according to the ancients , is a sign of good luck . Aristotle , Athenaeus , Pliny , and Oppian studied its habits and lavished on its behalf all the scientific poetry of Greece and Italy . They called it `` nautilus '' and `` pompilius . ''