a quarter before
twelve
The reason for this was that , though there was no cloud in the sky to dim the brightness of day , there was no sun to give brightness . Far to the south the sun climbed steadily to meridian , but between it and the frozen Yukon intervened the bulge of the earth . The Yukon lay in a night shadow , and the day itself was in reality a long twilight-light . At a quarter before twelve , where a wide bend of the river gave a long vista south , the sun showed its upper rim above the sky-line . But it did not rise perpendicularly . Instead , it rose on a slant , so that by high noon it had barely lifted its lower rim clear of the horizon . It was a dim , wan sun .