three o'clock in the afternoon
Trees became rare . Large sheaves of bamboo alone rose above the grass , and so high that even Hercules was not a head over them . The passage of the little party was only revealed by the movement of these stalks . Toward three o'clock in the afternoon of that day , the nature of the ground totally changed . Here were long plains , which must have been entirely inundated in the rainy season . The earth , now more swampy , was carpeted by thick mosses , beneath charming ferns . Should it be diversified by any steep ascents , they would see brown hematites appear , the last deposits of some rich vein of mineral .