one
o'clock in the afternoon
But a truce to jokes . Let us all aboard , strike out , and be on our way over the lake . '' In compliance with this suggestion , those not already in the boats took to their seats , handled their oars , pushed off , and , headed by the hunter and his boat companion , and falling , one after another , into a line , rowed steadily on across , the broadest part of the lake , taking a lofty pine , whose attenuated top looked like a reed rising over the fog in the distance , as a guide and landmark to the great inlet , where the most arduous task of their expedition was to be encountered , -- the surmounting of the long line of rapids leading to the great lakes above . But that task , after a pleasant rowing of a couple of hours had brought them to it , was , by dint of hard struggles against the current , with oars as long as oars could be made to prevail ; with setting-poles when oars ceased to serve the purpose ; and with ropes attached to the boats and drawn from point to point or rock to rock , when neither oars nor poles were of any avail ; together with the carrying both boats and baggage by land round the last and most difficult ascent , -- that task was at length accomplished , and , before one o'clock in the afternoon , all the boats , with their loading , were safely launched on the broad bosom of the wild and picturesque Molechunk-a-munk . Here , however , the company decided on taking their mid-day 's lunch , and an hour 's rest , before proceeding on their voyage . But , not deeming it expedient to incur the trouble and delay which the building of fires and the new cooking of provisions would require , they drew out only their bread and cold meats , for the occasion ; and these , as the company were seated in an irregular circle on the rocks , were discussed and dispatched with that keen relish which abstinence and a toil-earned appetite alone could have brought them . After they had finished their repast , they , at the suggestion of Phillips and Codman , the only persons of the company who were familiar with the lakes and country above , took up a question which they had before discussed , without settling , but which , they were told by the persons just named , must now , before proceeding any farther , be definitely settled and understood .