one o’clock
A row of heavy white clouds lay along the horizon almost unchangeable and immovable , with their summit-lines and the part of the mass just below them steeped in sunlight . The level opaline water differed only from a floor by a scarcely perceptible heaving motion , which broke into the faintest of ripples at our feet . So still was the great ocean , so quietly did everything lie in it , that the wavelets which licked the beach were as pure and bright as if they were a part of the mid-ocean depths . About a mile from us , at one o'clock , a long row of porpoises appeared , showing themselves in graceful curves for half-an-hour or so , till they went out farther to sea off Fairlight . Some fishing-boats were becalmed just in front of us . Their shadows slept , or almost slept , upon the water , a gentle quivering alone showing that it was not complete sleep , or if sleep , that it was sleep with dreams . The intensity of the sunlight sharpened the outlines of every little piece of rock , and of the pebbles , in a manner which seemed supernatural to us Londoners .