noon
The morning rose fair and bright , with a south-westerly air rather than a breeze . He sailed before it ; it was so light that his progress could not have exceeded more than three miles an hour . Hour after hour passed away , and still he followed the line of the shore , now going a short way out to skirt an island , and now nearer it to pass between sandbanks . By noon he was so weary of sitting in the canoe that he ran her ashore , and rested awhile . It was the very height of the heat of the day when he set forth again , and the wind lighter than in the morning . It had , however , changed a little , and blew now from the west , almost too exactly abaft to suit his craft . He could not make a map while sailing , or observe his position accurately , but it appeared to him that the shore trended towards the south-east , so that he was gradually turning an arc .