noon
We started the next morning , and ascended a high ridge , we were in great spirits , little anticipating the horrible tragedy in which we should soon have to play our parts . The country before us was extremely rough and broken : we pushed on , however , buffeting , turning , and twisting about until nearly dark , crossing and recrossing deep gullies , our progress in one direction impeded by steep hills , and in another by , yawning ravines , until , finally , we encamped at night not fifteen miles from where we had started in the morning . During the day , we had found large plum patches , and had picked a great quantity of this fruit , which we found sweet and refreshing after our toil . On the following morning , after winding about until noon among the hills , we at length reached a beautiful table-land , covered with musqueet trees . So suddenly did we leave behind us the rough and uneven tract of country and enter a level valley , and so instantaneous was the transition , that the change of scenery in a theatre was brought forcibly to our minds ; it was turning from the bold and wild scenery of Salvator Rosa to dwell upon the smiling landscape of a Poussin or Claude Lorrain . On starting in the morning , nothing was to be seen but a rough and rugged succession of hills before us , piled one upon another , each succeeding hill rising above its neighbour . At the summit of the highest of these hills , the beautiful and fertile plain came suddenly to view , and we were immediately upon it , without one of us anticipating anything of the kind .