'212 Earth contained in tie Zircons of North Carolina. 



tioned locality did no! emit the phosphorescent fight, which the 

 crystals from other localities '1". 



Thf reactions of Zirconia, as described by Berzelius, Her- 

 mann, Rose, Scheerer and others, differ in Borne points from the 

 reactions of the earth contained in the Zircons of North Caro- 

 lina and Miask in Siberia, as described by Troosl and Saint 

 Claire Deville, so as to BUggest the.ideaof a difference between 

 those two earths. 



Berzelius and many other chemists state that the solution of 

 Zirconia salts is precipitated by oxalic acid, and that this pre- 

 cipitate remains insolnble, when an excess of oxalic acid is 

 added. This reaction was so sure that several chemists even 

 founded on it a method of separating iron from Zirconia. 



The earth, however, contained in our Zircons was entirely and 

 easily soluhle in oxalic acid. 



In order to obtain a larger quantity of the earth, or of a solu- 

 ble compound to determine the properties of this earth, we 



mixed Zin b finely pulverized' with carbon and heated this 



mixture in a current of chlorine gas. We obtained a mixture of 

 the chloride of the earth and that of iron, which was dissolved 

 in water and then precipitated with caustic potassa in excess. 

 The thoroughly washed precipitate was redissolved with hy- 

 drochloric acid in excess, the solution mixed with alcohol and 

 then with ether. 



Small crystals were precipitated while the iron remained in 

 solution, and was then removed by further washing with ether. 



The air-dried salt was carefully analyzed, and yielded in the 

 average of two analyses 



21.62 Chlorine. 



38.87 of the earth. 



We were not aide, with the equivalent of Zirconium, to 

 abstract a simple formula from these result 



According to our observations it appears to he probable that 



/••■on- of different localities may contain different earth-. 



• l e Ziroon '.'.•:■( robaibly from < !< \ Ion. 



