254 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



homotaxial with those of the Bad Lands of Nebraska. Amer. 

 Jour. Science, 1870, ^L.,page 262. 



Alkaline Lakes of California. It appears that a portion of Cal- 

 ifornia is very rich in mineral waters, and, moreover, contains 

 large sheets of water, evidently occupying the craters of extinct 

 volcanoes. The water of Lake Owen has a specific gravity of 

 1.076 and contains 7,128.24 grains of solid matter to the gallon, 

 consisting of 2,942 grains of chloride of sodium, 956 grains of 

 sulphate of sodium, 2,914 grains of carbonate of sodium, together 

 with sulphate and phosphate of potassium, silica, and a small 

 amount of organic matter. The Kaysa, or borax lake, yields 

 daily 3,000 pounds of crude borax composed in 100 parts of, dry 

 biborate of sodium, 51.85 ; water of crystallization, 45.44; dry 

 sulphate of sodium, 0.06 ; chloride of sodium, 0.08 ; phosphate of 

 sodium, 1.15; insoluble matter, 1.42. The water of -this lake has 

 a sp. gr. of 1.0274, and contains in a gallon, chloride of sodium, 

 1,198.66 grains; chloride of potassium, 9.92 grains; iodine of 

 magnesium, 0.22 grains; bromide of magnesium, trace ; carbonate 

 of sodium, 578.65 grains; biborate of sodium, 281.48 grains; 

 phosphate of aluminum, 3.52 grains ; sulphate of calcium, trace ; 

 silica, 2.37 grains; volatile and organic matters, 238.66. The 

 mud of this lake contains large quantities of crystallized borax ; 

 at some short distance from this lake a rich sulphur deposit is met 

 with which contains a vein of cinnabar ; both of these minerals 

 are now worked. The quantity of sulphur daily obtained amounts 

 to some 7 tons. Bull, dela Soc. cPEncour. 



Submergence of a large Portion of the Nortli American Conti- 

 nent. Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, of the New Hampshire State Geo- 

 logical Survey, finds an argument for the submergence of a large 

 portion of the North American continent since the drift 

 period in the existence of 27 species of maritime plants in the 

 interior along the great lakes. These extend up the Hudson 

 River and Chaniplain Valley and along the Lakes of Ontario and 

 Erie to Minnesota. He argues that these plants were originally 

 introduced by natural emigration along an ancient estuary, and 

 that many of them remain to the present day in consequence of 

 the existence of conditions favorable to their preservation. He 

 supposes that the plants about the salt springs in Northern New 

 York were introduced in the same way. The pre-glacial flora 

 has been completely destroyed by the intense cold, and while a 

 new creation might explain the existence of salt-water plants 

 about the springs, it would not show why these marine plants 

 could exist in the far interior. There should be a special fitness 

 of species to conditions, in case the creation theory is invoked. 

 He concludes that the continent must have been submerged 200 

 or 300 feet lower than geologists have supposed, relying upon the 

 ordinary arguments, and that the clays about Superior and Erie 

 must have been of marine or estuary origin. 



Asbestus and Corundum at Pelham, Mass. In the towns of Pel- 

 ham and Shutesbury, Mass., there are several localities of asbestus 

 known to mineralogists, indifferent specimens from which place 

 are common in collections. Recent excavations to obtain asbes- 



