nine o’clock
`` After all , though , if that 's the nature of the beast , we must n't be too hard on them for it ! '' Silence gradually settled down under the influence of the impending storm : the thickened air actually seemed no longer adapted to the transmission of sound ; the atmosphere appeared MUFFLED , and , like a room hung with tapestry , lost all its sonorous reverberation . The `` rover bird '' so-called , the coroneted crane , the red and blue jays , the mocking-bird , the flycatcher , disappeared among the foliage of the immense trees , and all nature revealed symptoms of some approaching catastrophe . At nine o'clock the Victoria hung motionless over Msene , an extensive group of villages scarcely distinguishable in the gloom . Once in a while , the reflection of a wandering ray of light in the dull water disclosed a succession of ditches regularly arranged , and , by one last gleam , the eye could make out the calm and sombre forms of palm-trees , sycamores , and gigantic euphorbiae . `` I am stifling ! '' said the Scot , inhaling , with all the power of his lungs , as much as possible of the rarefied air .