one o'clock
Now as you know I have ridden pretty much everything from a broom stick to a camel , but for absolute novelty of motion commend me to a Japanese horse . There is a lurch to larboard , then a lurch to starboard , with a sort of `` shiver-my-timbers '' interlude . A coolie walks at the head of each horse , and reasons softly with him when he misbehaves . We rode for thirteen miles to the foot of the volcano , then at one o'clock we left the horses with one of the men and began to climb . Each climber was tied to a coolie whose duty it was to pull , and to carry the lantern . We made a weird procession , and the strange call of the coolies as they bent their bodies to the task , mingled with the laughter and exclamations of the party . For some miles the pine trees and undergrowth covered the mountain , then came a stretch of utter barren-ness and isolation .