236 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



CORIIESPONDENCE. 



A CUEIOUS SALINE DEPOSIT. 

 7b the Editor of the Popular Science Monihly. 



SIR : A singular natural phenomenon has 

 recently come under my observation. 

 As I have never heard of it before, and as 

 it appears almost incredible to all who have 

 heard me speak of it, I thought it well to 

 give it publicity through the columns of 

 your monthly. 



During tlie present month, while out on 

 a scouting expedition, I spent three days in 

 Deep Spring Valley, a lonely place in the 

 White Mountains in Inyo County, Califor- 

 nia. During one day of my stay, the 5th 

 of March, I found that the Indians were 

 catching wild aquatic birds of all sorts in 

 Deep Spring Lake by simply wading into 

 the water and seizing them with the hands. 

 The birds, at that time, had their plumage 

 so heavily coated with a saline compound 

 that they were totally unable to fly, and thus 

 fell an easy prey to the savages. On inquiry, 

 I was told that this salt formed on the birds' 

 breasts and wings, so as to prevent flight, 

 only during a very short season of the year, 

 and then under a peculiar combination of 

 circumstances. The season lasts from about 

 the first of March to the middle of April, 

 and the birds can only be caught from dawn 

 until about nine o'clock in the day, when 

 the previous night has been j)erfectiy clear, 

 with a gentle wind from the north. The 

 birds are then found in the southern part of 

 the lake, incrusted with the salt. On the 

 first night that I spent there the sky was 

 cloudy and the wind was from the north ; 

 on the third night the sky was clear and the 

 wind was from the south, and no ducks 

 were caught on the following morning; and 

 from my own observation I can say that 

 none were incrusted. But during the sec- 

 ond night of my stay the conditions were 

 exactly favorable, and ducks WL-re caught in 

 abundance next day. In 1875 I visited the 

 same locality in the month of December, 

 and neither heard nor saw anything of this 

 mode of catching water-fowl. 



I weighed one duck immediately after it 

 was caught, with all the incrustation intact, 

 and again when the salts were cleaned off, 

 and found that the latter weighed six pounds. 

 The duck seemed to have been drowned by 

 its burden ; its eyes and bill were complete- 

 ly closed by a large lump of the salt. 



Some small fresh streams enter the lake 

 at the northern end ; and on the favorable 

 nights the Indians take the precaution to 

 build fires and hang out cloths at the mouths 

 of these streams, to prevent any of the ducks 

 from entering the fresher water and thus 



having the salty incrustation dissolved or 

 washed off. During these favorable nights, 

 also, the Indians collect on the southeast- 

 ern shore of the lake and perform a duck- 

 dance, in which they artistically imitate the 

 motions, habits, and calls, of different kinds 

 of water-fowl. Throughout my entire so- 

 journ on the shores of the lake, its shallow 

 waters were rendered turbid by the wind ; 

 but they were equally turbid with a south 

 as with a north wind. 



As the lake of which I speak is the only 

 one known to these Indians where ducks 

 may be caught in this manner, it may be 

 well to describe it more particularly. It 

 lies in a desert valley, 6,200 feet above 

 the sea. It is about one mile in length 

 from north to south, and about three-quar- 

 ters of a mile wide from east to west. Its 

 average depth does not exceed three feet, 

 although there are a few deeper holes in it. 

 The land around is sandy, and covered with 

 " sage-brush." During the past summer 

 the Indians took from the bottom of the 

 lake several tons of salt, which was sold to 

 quartz-mills in this neighborhood as chloride 

 of sodium, sufficiently pure to be used in the 

 reduction of ores. It is said that the amount 

 obtained in two days was fourteen tons ; but 

 this estimate may be taken, in more senses 

 than one, cum grano salts. 



I send you a specimen of the salt, which 

 I gathered myself from one of the ducks, 

 and am very anxious that you would have 

 it analyzed. W. W. Wotherspoon, 



Lieutenant Twelfth U. S. Infantry. 

 Camp Independence, Into Co., Cal., I 

 March 15, 1877. j 



The following analysis, made by Dr. El- 

 wyn Waller, of the School of Mines, Colum- 

 bia College, gives the composition of the 

 deposit above referred to : 



Sulphate of soda 57.37 per cent. 



Sulphate of potash 8.09 " 



Chloride of potassium 0.82 " 



Carbonate of lime iM " 



Carbonate of magnesia 2.50 " 



Sand and clay 10.41 " 



Moisture 16.30 " 



Bicarbonate of soda (trace) " 



Organic matter 2.32 " 



100.05 



FERMENTATION AND DISEASE. 



To the Editor of the Popular Seience Montldij. 



Prof. Tyndall's lecture on " The Re- 

 lation of Fermentation to Putrefaction and 



* Calculated from the data afforded by the 

 weight of the combined sulphates, and a deter- 

 mination of the sulphuric acid present. 



