midnight
From the roofs of these palaces there hung myriads of gems , like diamonds , but larger than men ; and in among the streets of towers and pyramids and temples , there flowed immense rivers as black as ebony , and swarming with fish that had no eyes . ''' -LRB- * 3 -RRB- `` Hum ! '' said the king . ``` We then swam into a region of the sea where we found a lofty mountain , down whose sides there streamed torrents of melted metal , some of which were twelve miles wide and sixty miles long -LRB- * 4 -RRB- ; while from an abyss on the summit , issued so vast a quantity of ashes that the sun was entirely blotted out from the heavens , and it became darker than the darkest midnight ; so that when we were even at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles from the mountain , it was impossible to see the whitest object , however close we held it to our eyes . ''' -LRB- * 5 -RRB- `` Hum ! '' said the king . ``` After quitting this coast , the beast continued his voyage until we met with a land in which the nature of things seemed reversed -- for we here saw a great lake , at the bottom of which , more than a hundred feet beneath the surface of the water , there flourished in full leaf a forest of tall and luxuriant trees .