eleven in the morning
As for the detective , he was simply an adept , and worthy of being matched against his present opponent . `` Now , '' thought Passepartout , `` we 've got him . He wo n't budge . '' At eleven in the morning the train had reached the dividing ridge of the waters at Bridger Pass , seven thousand five hundred and twenty-four feet above the level of the sea , one of the highest points attained by the track in crossing the Rocky Mountains . After going about two hundred miles , the travellers at last found themselves on one of those vast plains which extend to the Atlantic , and which nature has made so propitious for laying the iron road . On the declivity of the Atlantic basin the first streams , branches of the North Platte River , already appeared . The whole northern and eastern horizon was bounded by the immense semi-circular curtain which is formed by the southern portion of the Rocky Mountains , the highest being Laramie Peak .