noon
This promontory is , in fact , the only one which juts out beyond the seventieth parallel along the whole of the North American continent , properly so called-that is to say , in English America . It remained to be proved that it really occupied the position assigned to it in maps . At this moment the sun was approaching the culminating-point of its course , and the two observers pointed the telescopes of their sextants upon it . By means of inclined mirrors attached to the instruments , the sun ought apparently to go back to the horizon itself ; and the moment when it seemed to touch it with the lower side of its disc would be precisely that at which it would occupy the highest point of the diurnal arc , and consequently the exact moment when it would pass the meridian-in other words , it would be noon at the place where the observation was taken . All watched in anxious silence . `` Noon ! '' cried Jaspar Hobson and the astronomer at once .