midday
Here and there this waste was dotted with ragged trees which he recognized as the cypress . From its gaunt branches hung a black , funeral kind of weeper , a kind of moss resembling iron-gray horse-hair both in texture and uses , though not so long in the staple . This parasite , Hazel explained to Helen , was very common in such marshy ground , and was the death-flag hung out by Nature to warn man that malaria and fever were the invisible and inalienable inhabitants of that fatal neighborhood . Looking narrowly along the low shore for some good landing , where under shelter of a tree they might repose for an hour , and spread their midday repast , they discovered an opening in the reeds , a kind of lagoon or bayou , extending into the morass between the highlands of the island and the circular mountain , but close under the base of the latter . This inlet he proposed to explore , and accordingly the sail was taken down , and the cutter was poled into the narrow creek . The water here was so shallow that the keel slid over the quicksand into which the oar sank freely . The creek soon became narrow , the water deeper , and of a blacker color , and the banks more densely covered with canes .