158 abstracts: hydrology 



2. The vanadium-bearing phospho-molybdate shows different solubil- 

 ity relations compared with normal phospho-molybdate with respect to 

 the usual washing solutions used in determining phosphorus. 



3. Conditions are given for quantitatively precipitating vanadic acid 

 when in solution alone, or accompanied by a variety of other elements, 

 by means of ammonium phospho-molybdate. 



4. In order to determine quantitatively the vanadic acid so precipi- 

 tated, (a) the possibility of freeing it from accompanying molybdic 

 acid was investigated; (b) conditions for reducing it without reducing 

 the associated molybdic acid were developed; and (c) a method for 

 reducing it by hydrogen (and other) peroxides, and titrating it against 

 permanganate was elaborated. 



5. Method (c) was applied to a variety of steels, to iron ores, mangan- 

 ese ores, and to synthetic mixtures, in all of which the vanadium was 

 determined accurately. J. R. C. 



HYDROLOGY.- — Some stream waters of the western United States, with 

 chapters on sediment carried by the Rio Grande and the industrial 

 application of water analyses. Herman Stabler. Water Supply 

 Paper, U. S. Geological Survey No. 274. Pp. 188. 1911. 



This paper presents the results of more than two years' analytical 

 work at the Berkeley, Cal., laboratory of the U. S. Reclamation Service. 

 The tables include mineral analyses of water from more than fifty impor- 

 tant streams of western United States, samples having been collected 

 daily for a period of one to two years, and miscellaneous analyses of 

 water from streams, springs, lakes, wells and borings. With the analyses 

 are tables of stream flow and estimates of daily discharge of suspended 

 matter and dissolved solids. Analyses of the suspended matter carried 

 by Colorado River and the Rio Grande are also included. 



One chapter is devoted to a study of the quantity of sediment carried 

 by the Rio Grande at the site of the proposed storage reservoir near 

 Engle, N. Mex., the conclusion being that the probable mean annual 

 discharge for a long term of years may variously be expressed as represent- 

 ing 11,300,000 tons of suspended matter, 3150 acre-feet of rock-matter, 

 5200 acre-feet of soil, 6110 acre-feet of compacted sediment, or 8650 acre- 

 feet of freshly deposited sediment. Attention is called to the wide error 

 likely to be introduced thru the customary method of making such esti- 

 mates. 



The final chapter is a study of the industrial application of water 

 analyses stated in ionic form. Soap consumption ; water softening; foam- 

 ing, corrosion, and scale-formation in boilers; and irrigation value are 



