ot which had been found in
the box, and which he wished to reserve for the future. How did he
know where chance might one day cast his companions and himself in the
event of their leaving their domain? They should, then, prepare for
the unknown future by husbanding their ammunition and by substituting
for it some easily renewable substance.

To replace lead, of which Harding had found no traces in the island,
he employed granulated iron, which was easy to manufacture. These
bullets, not having the weight of leaden bullets, were made larger,
and each charge contained less, but the skill of the sportsmen made up
this deficiency. As to powder, Cyrus Harding would have been able to
make that also, for he had at his disposal saltpetre, sulphur, and
coal; but this preparation requires extreme care, and without special
tools it is difficult to produce it of a good quality. Harding
preferred, therefore, to manufacture pyroxyle, that is to say
gun-cotton, a substance in which cotton is not indispensable, as the
elementary tissue of vegetables may be used, and this is found in an
almost pure state, not only in cotton, but in the textile fibres of
hemp and flax, in paper, the pith of the elder, etc. Now, the elder
abounded in the island towards the mouth of Red Creek, and the
colonists had already made coffee of the berries of these shrubs,
which belong to the family of the caprifoliaceae.

[Illustration: THE SETTLERS' NEW SHIRTS]

The only thing to be collected, therefore, was elder-pith, for as to
the other substance necessary for the manufacture of pyroxyle, it was
only fuming azotic acid. Now, Harding having sulphuric acid at his
disposal, had already been easily able to produce azotic acid by
attacking the saltpetre with which nature supplied him. He accordingly
resolved to manufacture and employ pyroxyle, although it has some
inconveniences, that is to say, a great inequality of effect, an
excessive inflammability, since it takes fire at one hundred and
seventy degrees instead of two hundred and forty, and lastly, an
instantaneous deflagration which might damage the firearms. On the
other hand, the advantages of pyroxyle consist in this, that it is not
injured by damp, that it does not make the gun-barrels dirty, and that
its force is four times that of ordinary powder.

To make pyroxyle, the cotton must be immersed in the fuming azotic
acid for a quarter of an hour, then washed in cold water and dried.
Nothing could be