1/2 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



phere. It also considers the relative points of saturation of the calcium salts 

 under varying conditions and the consequent order of their precipitation. 

 The computations have been developed with reference to their application to 

 certain of the problems of equilibria set forth in the preceding paper, and 

 also incidentally to the order of deposition of evaporation deposits under 

 conditions of aridity and other atmospheric states. They have been limited 

 for the present to two cases, the first when the three calcium salts are present 

 alone, and the second when they are present with other sulphates, of the 

 nature and quantity found in the ocean at the present time. 



Paper X. — Oti a Set of Postulates Relative to the Mega-Physical Constitution of the 

 Earth. By T. C. Chamberi<in. 



This is little more than a convenient synoptical arrangement of the 

 deductions, hj'potheses, and postulates derived from the planetesimal 

 hypothesis and from other sources, gathered together in brief statement, 

 partly for convenience and partly to give in miniature a revised conception 

 of the earth. 



Willis, Bailey, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, District of Columbia. 

 Second Supplement to Grant No. ii6 and Grant No. 373. Completion 

 of Reports A, B, and C, on geological research in Chi?ia. (For previous 

 reports see Year Book No. 2, p. xxxv ; Year Book No. 3, p. 118, and 

 Year Book No. 4, pp. 192-203.) $8,250. 



The year has been devoted to preparation of publications. Report A 

 has been completed and transmitted to the Institution. It pertains to the 

 geographic and geologic observations in China by Messrs. Willis, Black- 

 welder, and Sargent, and also includes the contributions on petrography and 

 zoology by Mr. Blackwelder, which were originally intended for Report B. 

 Report B relates to paleontology, and the papers of which it is to be com- 

 posed are nearly complete. The topographic and geologic atlas authorized 

 under Grants Nos. 261 and 280 is printed. Report C, on systematic geology 

 of China, will be ready for publication before the end of this year, and then 

 the results of Mr. Willis's expedition to China will have been submitted to 

 the Institution in full. 



Washington, Henry S., Locust, New Jersey. Grant No. 95. Chemical 

 investigatiojis of igneous rocks. (For previous reports see Year Book 

 No. 3, p. 113, and Year Book No. 4, p. 158.) $1,200. 



Abstract of report. — After his return from the trip described in his preceding 

 report. Dr. Washington's first occupation was the completion of his paper on 

 the igneous rocks of the central Italian volcanoes. This has appeared as 

 Publication No. 57 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, under the 

 title of "The Roman Comagmatic Region." 



The study of the material collected in Catalonia, Sardinia, Pantelleria, 

 and lyinosa was then begun. This was very largely chemical, preceded by 



