noon
`` Had we run down the 50th degree of longitude , '' I answered , `` we should have had twenty degrees to make to get round the Horn ; whereas , could we only lay through the Straits of Le Maire , six or eight of those very same degrees would carry us clear of everything . '' `` Only lay through the Straits of Le Maire , on the 10th November , or what is the same thing in this quarter of the world , of May , and with less than nine hours of day-light ! And such day-light , too ! Why , our Newfoundland fogs , such stuff as I used to eat when a youngster and a fisherman , are high noon to it ! Soundings are out of the question hereabouts ; and , before one has hauled in the deep-sea , with all its line out , his cut-water may be on a rock . This ship is so weatherly and drags ahead so fast , that we shall see _ terra firma _ before any one has a notion of it . The old man fancies , because the coast of Fuego trends to the north-west , that the land will fall away from us , as fast as we draw towards it .