noon
She is a small three-masted vessel almost exactly resembling the one which partially destroyed Kronstadt in the middle of March . After rounding the Skawe , the Russian fleet steamed away westward into the German Ocean , and we put in here to send off our despatches . This telegram has , of course , been officially revised , and my information , as far as it goes , can therefore be relied upon . At noon on the 26th , as the tropical sun was pouring down its vertical rays upon the lovely valley of Aeria , the _ Ithuriel _ crossed the Ridge which divided it from the outer world , and came to rest on the level stretch of sward on the northern shore of the lake . Before she touched the earth Arnold glanced rapidly round and discovered his aërial fleet resting under a series of large palm-thatched sheds which had already been erected to protect them from the burning sun , and the rare but violent tropical rain-storms . He counted them . There were only eleven , and therefore the evil tidings that they had heard from the captain of the _ Andromeda _ was true .