four o'clock in the afternoon
The morning was very calm ; there seemed no chance of a wind springing up , so the evening would probably be a choice one for moose-calling . In half an hour the band was again on the march , the business of breaking camp being a swift one . The tent was on Herb 's shoulders ; and naught was left to mark the visit of man to the humming stream but a bed of withering boughs on which the lynx might sleep to-night , and a few dying embers which the guide had thrashed out with his feet . No halt was made until four o'clock in the afternoon . Then Herb Heal came to a standstill on the edge of a wide bog . It lay between him and what he called the `` first heavy growth ; '' that is , the primeval forest , unthinned by axe of man , which at certain points clothes the foot of Katahdin . The great mountain , dwelling-place of Pamolah , cradle of the flying Thunder and flashing Lightning , which according to one Indian legend are the swooping sons of the Mountain Spirit , now towered before the travellers , its base only a mile distant .