two in the afternoon
Grey rocks almost meet in an arch overhead , others stand wide apart , leaving the distant blue visible , and discovering sombre and melancholy-looking depths , and rows of firs as far as the eye could reach . `` The Reuss flows along the bottom , sometimes leaping along in waterfalls , then creeping through thickets , or steaming , foaming , and thundering over precipices , while the echoes prolong the tumult and roar of its torrents in one immense endless hum . Since I left Tubingen the weather had continued fine ; but when I reached the summit of this gigantic staircase , about two leagues distant from the little hamlet of Novisaigne , I suddenly noticed great grey clouds begin passing overhead , which soon filled up the defile entirely ; this vapour was so dense that it soon penetrated my clothes as a heavy dew would have done . `` Although it was only two in the afternoon , the sky became clouded over as if darkness was coming on ; and I foresaw a heavy storm was about to break over my head . `` I consequently began looking about for shelter , and I saw through one of those wide openings which afford you a perspective view of the Alps , about two or three hundred yards distant on the slope leading down to the lake , an ancient-looking grey châlet , moss-covered , with its small round windows and sloping roof loaded with large stones , its stairs outside the house , with a carved rail , and its basket-shaped balcony , on which the Swiss maidens generally hang their snowy linen and scarlet petticoats to dry . `` Precisely as I was looking down , a tall woman in a black cap was folding and collecting the linen which was blowing about in the wind . `` To the left of this building a very large apiary supported on beams , arranged like a balcony , formed a projection above the valley .