midday
It -- was a desolate land of rocks and foaming streams and clattering cataracts . We climbed and descended mighty canyons and gorges ; and ever , from every view point , there spread out before us , in all directions , range upon range , the unceasing mountains . We slept at night in holes and crevices , and on one cold night we perched on top a slender pinnacle of rock that was almost like a tree . And then , at last , one hot midday , dizzy with hunger , we gained the divide . From this high backbone of earth , to the north , across the diminishing , down-falling ranges , we caught a glimpse of a far lake . The sun shone upon it , and about it were open , level grass-lands , while to the eastward we saw the dark line of a wide-stretching forest . We were two days in gaining the lake , and we were weak with hunger ; but on its shore , sleeping snugly in a thicket , we found a part-grown calf .