JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. 11 December 4, 1921 No. 20 



GEOCHEMISTRY.— iVoi^ on the water of Borax Lake.^ Roger C. 

 Wells, U. S. Geological Survey. 



Borax Lake is of interest, being the first locality in the United 

 States at which borax was produced commercially. It is a broad, 

 shallow lake, seldom over a few feet deep, situated east of the narrow 

 arm of Clear Lake in Lake County, California. It has been described 

 by J. A. Veatch, J. D. Whitney, G. F. Becker, J. A. Philipps, and 

 others. - 



Borax was first noted in the water by J. A. Veatch in 1856 and 

 shortly afterwards a bed of borax cr3'stals was found in the mud in 

 the bottom of the lake which was worked for borax by means of mov- 

 able coffer-dams. The water of the lake in September, 1863, contained 

 41.1 grams of solids to the liter, according to an analysis by G. E- 

 Moore, quoted by Whitney, and of this about 4.8 grams is anhydrous 

 borax. Melville's elaborate analysis published in Becker's monograph 

 on the quicksilver deposits of the Pacific slope shows total solids of 

 about 76.6, of which 5 grams per liter is borax. (This sample was 

 probably collected in 1887.) 



In August, 1921, Hoyt S. Gale collected a sample of water from 

 the lake and very kindly forwarded it to the writer for study with 

 the suggestion that a comparison of the present borax content with 

 previous determinations would be interesting. The material thus 

 presented was welcomed as being also suitable for the study of the 

 alkalinity and hydrogen ion concentration, the latter being a physical 

 property of alkali lake waters that has not yet been widely studied. 



The total solids obtained on evaporation and drying at 180° C. 

 amounted to 32.0 grams per liter. The water is therefore now more 

 dilute than the early samples mentioned above. This is perhaps not 



1 Published by permission of the Director of the United States Geological Survey. Re- 

 ceived October 21, 192L 



2 For references see bibliography by H. S. Gale, U. S. Geol. Survey Mineral Resources, 

 1913: Pt. II, p. .52.3. 



477 



