9:30 a.m. of May 28
At times there must be a little rainfall here , or else some hidden source of water , for a scrub , of dwarf acacia , of camel-grass , and tamarisk had begun to show . But as the black , naked mountains drew near , this gave place to flats white with salt , to jagged upcroppings of dull , yellowish rock -- how little they then suspected its true nature ! -- and to detached cliffs sharp as a wolf 's teeth , with strata of greenish schist . It was at 9:30 a.m. of May 28 , that _ Nissr _ tilted her planes and soared abruptly over the first crags of the Iron Mountains . At a height of forty-five hundred feet she sped above them , the heat of their sun-baked blackness radiating up against her wings and body . No more terrible desolation could be imagined than this rock fortress , split with chasms and unsounded gorges , where here and there more of the yellow outcrops showed . No life appeared , not even vultures .