276 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [^- u g- 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CHEMISTRY OF 

 NATURAL WATERS. 



By T. Sterrt Hunt, LL.D., F.R.S. ; of the Geol. Survey of Canada. 



III. 



Chemical and Geological Considerations. 



Contents of Sections. — 52, salts of alkaline metals, proportion and 

 sources of potash ; 53, potash in a borax lake, in the primitive sea ; 



54, salts of lime and magnesia, relations of chlorids and cabonates ; 



55, solubility of earthy carbonates ; 56, super-saturated solutions of 

 •carbonates of lime and magnezia ; 57, salts of barium and strontium, 

 solution of their sulphates ; 58, iron manganese, alumina and phos- 

 phates ; 59, bromids and iodids ; the small portion of bromine and the 

 excess of iodine in saline springs as compared with the modern ocean; 

 60, probable relation of iodids to sediments; 61, sulphates, their 

 elimination from waters ; 62, water holding a soluble sulphuret; 63, 

 borates, their detection and determination ; 64, analysis of a borax 

 water from California ; 65, carbonates, their amount in the Caledonia 

 water; 56, intervention of neutral carbonate of soda ; 67 deficiency 

 of carbonic acid in waters; 68, reactions of various waters; 69, 

 silica, its source and its proportion ; 70, its conditions ; formation of 

 silicates; 71, organic matters; 72, geological position of the waters 

 here described ; 73, succession of paleozoic strata; lithological 

 relations of successive formation ; 74, Quebec group, its waters ; 75, 

 .sources of various classes of waters ; 76, their relation to the forma- 

 tions; 77, association of unlike waters, changes in constitution ; 78, 

 temperature of springs, thermal waters ; 79, geological interest of the 

 above analyses ; possible results of the evaporation of these springs ; 

 80, relations of mineral springs to folding and to metamorphism of 

 strata; 81, on the supposed origin of the primeval ocean and the 

 earliest sediments ; 82, on the theory of metalliferous deposits. 



§ 52. Salts of the Alkaline Metals. — These salts abound 

 in most saline waters, and except in the few cases in which 

 sulphate of magnesia prevails, form a large part of the soluble 

 matters present. The salts of sodium are by far the most 

 abundant, and the proportion of potassium salt is generally small. 

 The chlorid of potassium in modern sea-water constitutes three or 

 four hundredths of the alkaline chlorids, while in the brines from 

 old rocks, and in saline waters of the first two classes alike from 

 Germany, England, the United States, and Canada, its proportion 

 is much less, sometimes amounting to traces only. In the waters 

 of classes III and IV, where alkaline carbonates appear, and even 

 predominate, the proportion of potassium salt becomes greater. 



