About three o’clock
With this , the Victoria rose swiftly above the range of the whirling column , but , caught in the vast displacement of the atmosphere thereby occasioned , it was borne along with incalculable rapidity away above this foaming sea . The three travellers did not speak . They gazed , and hoped , and even felt refreshed by the breath of the tempest . About three o'clock , the whirlwind ceased ; the sand , falling again upon the desert , formed numberless little hillocks , and the sky resumed its former tranquillity . The balloon , which had again lost its momentum , was floating in sight of an oasis , a sort of islet studded with green trees , thrown up upon the surface of this sandy ocean . `` Water ! we 'll find water there ! ''