And Pencroft smoked, and smoked, and smoked.

"And who made this discovery?" he asked at length. "You, Herbert, no
doubt?"

"No, Pencroft, it was Mr. Spilett."

"Mr Spilett!" exclaimed the sailor seizing the reporter, and clasping
him to his breast with such a squeeze that he had never felt anything
like it before.

"Oh, Pencroft," said Spilett, recovering his breath at last, "a truce
for one moment. You must share your gratitude with Herbert, who
recognised the plant, with Cyrus, who prepared it, and with Neb who
took a great deal of trouble to keep our secret."

"Well, my friends, I will repay you some day," replied the sailor.
"Now we are friends for life."

[Illustration: PENCROFT HAS NOTHING LEFT TO WISH FOR]

CHAPTER XI

Winter -- Felling Wood -- The Mill -- Pencroft's fixed Idea
-- The Bones -- To what Use an Albatross may be put -- Fuel
for the Future -- Top and Jup -- Storms -- Damage to the
Poultry-yard -- Excursion to the Marsh -- Cyrus Harding alone
-- Exploring the Well

Winter arrived with the month of June, which is the December of the
northern zones, and the great business was the making of warm and
solid clothing.

The musmons in the corral had been stripped of their wool, and this
precious textile material was now to be transformed into stuff.

Of course Cyrus Harding, having at his disposal neither carders,
combers, polishers, stretchers, twisters, mule-jenny, nor self-acting
machine to spin the wool, nor loom to weave it, was obliged to proceed
in a simpler way, so as to do without spinning and weaving. And indeed
he proposed to make use of the property which the filaments of wool
possess when subjected to a powerful pressure of mixing together, and
of manufacturing by this simple process the material called felt. This
felt could then be obtained by a simple operation which, if it
diminished the flexibility of the stuff, increased its power of
retaining heat in proportion. Now the wool furnished by the musmons
was composed of very short hairs, and was in a good condition to be
felted.

The engineer, aided by his companions, including Pencroft, who was
once more obliged to leave his boat, commenced the preliminary
operations, the object of which was to rid the wool of that fat and
oily substance with which it is impregnated, and which is called
grease. This cleaning was done in vats filled with water, which was
maintained at the temperature of seventy d