BAILEY AND FRANKLIN: WATERS OF THE KAW RIVER. 93 



winter stage comes from the upper tributaries, and 60 per cent, of 

 this, or about a third of the whole river flow at Lawrence, is the water, 

 of the Republican and the Blue together*" The source of the 

 remaining water, as discharged at the mouth of the Kaw, is largely 

 the water that is contributed by springs and by sub-surface infiltra- 

 tion. There is then a large stream, running beneath the surface 

 through the Kaw valley, and to this we owe the fact that the river 

 does not dry up entirely in its lower reaches during the dry season. 



Methods of Analysis. 



The analyses were made as soon as possible after the waters were 

 collected. This was especially true of the examination for organic 

 matter. Great care was also exercised that the samples as delivered 

 at the laboratory should be genuine and in no way contaminated by 

 the bottles or containers. 



The plan followed for the mineral analysis was that generally used 

 in chemical laboratories. The method of stating the results is prac- 

 tically that followed by the best known writers and analysts in England. 



The determination of organic carbon and nitrogen was made by the 

 method of Frankland (Frankland's Water Analysis, and Prof. Mal- 

 let's report to the U. S. Board of Health, 1882). To those who 

 have used it, this process is known to be laborious, but the results ob- 

 tained in this case were satisfactory, as they confirmed the figures 

 obtained by the ordinary free and albuminoid ammonia process. It 

 is worthy of note in the consideration of this process that the 

 methods of evaporation of the water that have been suggested, are at 

 the best attended with difficulties, and that the process of evaporation 

 requires so long a time as to make it very inconvenient. Wanklyn 

 was followed in the determination of free and albuminoid ammonia. 

 A few well known modifications of the process were made use of. 

 For nitrates, the method used was the old one of reduction of the 

 nitrates and nitrites to ammonia by means of the copper-zinc couple, 

 and the subsequent distillation of the ammonia and determination by 

 Nesslerizing (Untersuchung des Wassers, Tiemann-Gartner; also 

 Frankland, p. 37). The method of estimation of nitrates by conversion 

 into trinitrophenol, which is an excellent one in some cases, was not 

 applicable here on account of the large amount of chlorides present 

 in this water. The Grum method and the process of boiling with 

 ferrous chloride were found to be less satisfactory, on account of the 

 fact that there was so small a quantity of nitrites in this water, and so 

 a correspondingly large amount of the vvater must be used to get 

 accurate results. 



