noon
Its shape excited curiosity , and a few strokes of the axe cleared off its covering of ice . `` This ice from Greenland , '' said Regnar . `` Here is the stone the Inuit uses for pots -- what you call soapstone . '' `` Well , I hope we shall not need it , '' said La Salle , `` for the North Cape is now only ten miles away , and it is not yet noon . I want the blubber for fuel , or I would not waste time with this skin even . '' `` We shall have all we want to get back to George . See how the clouds close in .