noon
Following a circuitous and naturally formed pathway round the base , he reached the opposite side ; and now from a height of three hundred feet above the level of the sea , his eyes commanded a view of a scene as fair as that behind the range of mountains . He was now for the first time convinced of what he had all along suspected -- namely , that it was indeed an island on which the storm had cast him . But though from the eminence where he stood his view embraced the immense range of the ocean , no speck in the horizon -- no sail upon the bosom of the expanse imparted hope to his soul . Hunger now oppressed him ; for he had eaten nothing since the noon of the preceding day , when he had plucked a few fruits in the groves on the other side of the island . He accordingly commenced a descent toward the new region which lay stretched before him , fair as -- even fairer than -- the one which had first greeted his eyes . But he had not proceeded many yards amidst the defiles of the rugged rocks which nature had piled around the base of the volcano , when he found his way suddenly barred by a vast chasm , on the verge of which the winding path stopped . The abyss was far too wide to be crossed save by the wing of the bird : and in its unfathomable depths boiled and roared a torrent , the din of whose eddies was deafening to the ear .