midday
Once there , however , the view was a very fine one . Before us was a long steep slope of grassy plain , broken here and there by clumps of trees mostly of the thorn tribe . At the bottom of this gentle slope , some nine or ten miles away , we could make out a dim sea of marsh , over which the foul vapours hung like smoke about a city . It was easy going for the bearers down the slopes , and by midday we had reached the borders of the dismal swamp . Here we halted to eat our midday meal , and then , following a winding and devious path , plunged into the morass . Presently the path , at any rate to our unaccustomed eyes , grew so faint as to be almost indistinguishable from those made by the aquatic beasts and birds , and it is to this day a mystery to me how our bearers found their way across the marshes . Ahead of the cavalcade marched two men with long poles , which they now and again plunged into the ground before them , the reason of this being that the nature of the soil frequently changed from causes with which I am not acquainted , so that places which might be safe enough to cross one month would certainly swallow the wayfarer the next .