about eleven o’clock in the morning
It took him nearly three-quarters of an hour to get through , and then , at last , came the blessed air of real day , and a glimpse of the lagoon between the tree-boles . He would have rowed round in the dinghy , only that at low tide the shallows of the north of the island were a bar to the boat 's passage . Of course he might have rowed all the way round by way of the strand and reef entrance , but that would have meant a circuit of six miles or more . When he came between the trees down to the lagoon edge it was about eleven o'clock in the morning , and the tide was nearly at the full . The lagoon just here was like a trough , and the reef was very near , scarcely a quarter of a mile from the shore . The water did not shelve , it went down sheer fifty fathoms or more , and one could fish from the bank just as from a pier head . He had brought some food with him , and he placed it under a tree whilst he prepared his line , which had a lump of coral for a sinker .