LARSEN AND HICKS: NOTE ON SEARLESITE 397 



tated barium carbonate and titrating it against standard acid as 

 described in the paper above cited. The oxides were usually 

 found to be thoroughly fused and to have spread over the bottom 

 of the boat; in some cases they even crept over the sides of the 

 container. A second fusion of such oxides gave no further carbon 

 dioxide to a freshly filled and clear barium hydroxide tube. 

 Great care was taken at all stages of the work to eliminate extra- 

 neous carbon dioxide, so that the frequent blank determinations 

 made by passing oxygn at the rate used in a combustion for 

 twenty minutes to one-half hour gave no amounts of barium car- 

 bonate determinable by the method used. 



The results of Table 1 show that some steels give higher results 

 by the new method than by the old and that others yield only 

 slightly higher figures, while with the iron the difference amounts 

 to nearly 0.02 per cent. The alloy steels thus far tested do not 

 seem to give higher results than are to be found among the plain 

 carbon steels. Whether greater differences in general may be 

 found with other products can be determined only after further 

 work. 



The more extended paper on this subject to be published by us 

 elsewhere will contain results on the remaining standard analyzed 

 steel samples of the Bureau of Standards, as well as the description 

 of an electric furnace used for heating the porcelain and platinum 

 combustion tubes used. 



MINERALOGY. — Preliminary note on searlesite, a new mineral.^ 

 EsPER S. Larsen and W. B. Hicks, U. S. Geological Survey. 



The mineral for which the name searlesite is proposed was found 

 in samples from the deep well in Searles Lake, San Bernardino 

 County, California. One sample, washed from the clay at a 

 depth of 540 feet, consists almost entirely of spherulites which 

 are made up largely of radiating fibers of searlesite with a con- 

 siderable amount of sand and calcite. In another specimen the 

 searlesite is associated with pirssonite, trona, halite, sand, etc. 



^ To appear in full in the American Journal of Science. 



