The day before he had noted exactly the hour when the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, making allowance for the refraction.

This morning he noted, no less exactly, the hour at which it reappeared.

Between this setting and rising twelve hours, twenty-four minutes passed.

Then, six hours, twelve minutes after its rising, the sun on this day would exactly pass the meridian and the point of the sky which it occupied at this moment would be the north.

At the said hour, Cyrus marked this point, and putting in a line with the sun two trees which would serve him for marks, he thus obtained an invariable meridian for his ulterior operations.
The settlers employed the two days before the oven was built in collecting fuel.