midday
They went along a narrow track , pushing their way through bushes and thorns , or tall rank grass , sometimes with difficulty forcing through elephant reeds which closed over their heads and showered the cold dew down on their faces . Sometimes they passed through villages , with rich soil and extensive population ; sometimes they plunged into heavy forests of gigantic trees , festooned with creepers , where the silence was unbroken even by the footfall of the traveller on the bottomless carpet of leaves ; sometimes they traversed vast swamps , hurrying to avoid the deadly fever , and sometimes scrub jungles , in which as far as the eye could reach was a forest of cactus and thorn bush . Sometimes they made their way through grassy uplands with trees as splendid as those of an English park , and sometimes they toiled painfully along a game-track that ran by the bank of a swift-rushing river . At midday a halt was called . The caravan had opened out by then ; men who were sick or had stopped to adjust a load , others who were weak or lazy , had lagged behind ; but at last they were all there ; and the rear guard , perhaps with George in charge of it , whose orders were on no account to allow a single man to remain behind them , reported that no one was missing . During the heat of noon they made fires and cooked food . Presently they set off once more and marched till sundown .