Herbert found a vein of it at the foot of Mount Franklin, and they had nothing to do but purify this salt.
These different works lasted a week.

They were finished before the transformation of the sulphuret into sulphate of iron had been accomplished.

During the following days the settlers had time to construct a furnace of bricks of a particular arrangement, to serve for the distillation of the sulphate or iron when it had been obtained.

All this was finished about the 18th of May, nearly at the time when the chemical transformation terminated.

Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Neb, and Pencroft, skillfully directed by the engineer, had become most clever workmen.