GEOLOGY. 365 



radicals in equilibrium proportions suited to these new states of concentration and 

 to their own inherent properties. Now, it is to be noted that the concentration 

 of the sodium solutions in the ocean was much higher than that of the potas- 

 sium and the other alkahes and that this led to a relatively high reunion of 

 sodium with the acid radicals. There is abundant evidence in the analytical 

 experiments of agricultural and other technical chemists that such partitive 

 reversing reactions take place. Such action is also indicated by ancient 

 domestic practices of rendering sea-water fresh enough for drinking purposes 

 by passing it through soils. The acid radicals are largely carried down 

 with storm-waters or the freshets from snow thaws; they form the turbid 

 factor of these waters, and so are naturally enough neglected in analyses made 

 for agricultural or domestic purposes. The account of what the streams carry 

 to the ocean is thus one-sided and radically defective. The reaction between 

 the turbid acidic matter and the sea-solutions undoubtedly takes place 

 chiefly at the contact of the relatively light turbid waters with the heavier 

 sea-waters, over which they spread out in fan-like form at the mouths of 

 streams. In such a situation, a transient partial recomposition of sodium and 

 the acid radicals would easily escape detection if not diligently sought, while 

 such sodium silicates as are found in sediments taken from the ocean-bottom 

 have been plausibly assigned to incomplete decomposition on land. The 

 recombination of the sodium with acid radicals, even when aided by concen- 

 tration, will not equal the combinations of potassium with the acid radicals, 

 but the partial recombination of the sodium should be systematic and per- 

 sistent until it reaches its proper equilibrium value. The assigned products of 

 such reunion are chiefly silicates of aluminum, iron, and sodium, and are 

 commonly found in marine muds and shales. These recombination products, 

 mingling with the sediments at the bottom of the ocean, are not readily dis- 

 tinguishable from similar compounds that have been interpreted as unde- 

 composed residues of the disintegrating processes on the land or as the wind- 

 blown products of eolian abrasion. The importance of the problem invites 

 special research to place the matter on an experimentally demonstrative basis. 

 As this recomposition of sodium should take place at the mouths of all 

 streams capable of carrying soils or soil colloids to the sea, and as it is persistent 

 and closely correlated with the solvent action which gives rise to the true 

 solutions, it should have large competency. There is a fair presumption that 

 its competency is great enough to place sodium unqualifiedly among the 

 active cyclic solid-liquid elements and to render its ratio to chlorine consistent 

 rather than incongruous, when the prolonged history of the ocean is taken 

 into account.^ 



' A fuller discussion, with quotations and references, may be found in A symposium on the age 

 of the earth: I. From the geological viewpoint, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. (1922). 



