nine o'clock
It was , however , found that the barometer had risen , too quickly , it is true , for the rise to be serious . Presently other signs of change became evident . The wind , which was growing colder -- a south wind since we had passed beyond the south pole -- began to blow a full gale , and the noises from below were heard more distinctly through the space swept by the atmospheric currents . At nine o'clock the iceberg doffed its cap of vapour quite suddenly , producing an indescribable transformation scene which no fairy 's wand could have accomplished in less time or with greater success . In a few moments , the sky was clear to the extreme verge of the horizon , and the sea reappeared , illumined by the oblique rays of the sun , which now rose only a few degrees above it . A rolling swell of the waves bathed the base of our iceberg in white foam , as it drifted , together with a great multitude of floating mountains under the double action of wind and current , on a course inclining to the nor ' - nor ' - east . `` Land ! ''