1 64 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



thought perhaps this small stone might 

 be the cause of a destructive avalanche. 



Finally we reached a crag which seemed 

 insurmountable. One guide got up and 

 by the aid of the rope I was hoisted up. 

 The wind was furious, but securing pro- 

 tection under a ledge, I sat down at an 

 elevation of 14,000 feet, and looked 

 about me. The sight was awe-inspiring. 

 Beyond, and miles and miles away, 

 loomed up one peak after another, all 

 clothed in the light of the sun which 

 rose behind me, and piercing through 

 the clouds which hung sullenly over 

 the valley 4,000 feet below where I sat. 

 It was truly stupendous. If anything is 

 calculated to demonstrate the insignifi- 

 cance of man despite his boastful vanity, 

 it is to be perched on a mountain top, 

 at the mercy of the wind and storms, 

 three miles above the surface of the 

 earth, shut out by the clouds and with 

 his whereabouts unknown. How one 

 gust of wind can blow him to destruct- 

 ion, to a fate never to be known. How 

 weak after all is man ! How nearer it 

 brings him to the Creator. 



The winds blowing up the mountain 

 side lifted the clouds which hung over 

 the valley and from above it appeared like 

 steam arising from a cauldron. The 

 mighty chain of snow clad peaks rose 

 before me imposing and almost incom- 

 prehensible, each one seemingly vieing 

 with its neighbor for supremacy. The 

 snow glistening in the sunlight enhanced 

 the beautiful spectacle and I was lost 

 in thought. The guide aroused me 

 from my re very by an admonition that a 

 storm was coming on, and hardly had 

 he spoken when heavy banks of clouds 

 obscured the sun and large flakes began 

 to fall, carried hither and thither by the 

 angry winds. Nothing could be seen, 

 and for the first time I realized the deep 

 meaning of being lost in a snow storm. 

 The blinding storm raged for some time, 



but luckily for us shelter was provided 

 by a huge overhanging crag until the 

 severity abated. In a few hours we 

 returned to the hut, and Moss and Hen- 

 derson having regained their vigor, the 

 descent began, and we finally reached 

 Interlaken, where we were received with 

 every demonstration of welcome. 



ON THE PREPARATION OF WATER FREE 

 FROn AfinONIA. 



By Joseph Barnes, F. I. C. 



The preparation of water free from 

 ammonia, either by fractional distillation 

 or by the process of long boiling with 

 carbonate of soda is always a somewhat 

 tedious operation. The well-known de- 

 structive action of the halogens chlorine 

 and bromine on ammonia does not appear 

 to have been made use of for ridding dis- 

 tilled water of this impurity. These 

 agents however, afford us a means of 

 preparing water absolutely tree from 

 ammonia in a very simple and expeditous 

 manner. If a small quantity of bromine 

 is added to ordinary distilled water and 

 the latter boiled for a few minutes, 

 all traces of ammonia will be destroyed. 

 The same result is obtained by allowing 

 the action to go on for several hours in 

 the cold. 



Much more rapid however is the action 

 an alkaline hypobromite, which will des- 

 troy every trace of ammonia in the space 

 of a few minutes in the cold. Water 

 which has been treated either with 

 bromine or a hypobromite cannot be used 

 for Nesslerising purposes until all remain- 

 ing traces of these reagents have been 

 removed or destroyed, otherwise there 

 will be a destruction of ammonia in the 

 standard solution used for comparison : 

 potassium iodide effectually serves this 

 purpose, and the method resolves itself 

 into the following simple operations ; 



One or two litres of ordinary distilled 

 water are placed in a stoppered bottle 



