432 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
we are justified in concluding that this water comes from the 
other direction, and represents an underground movement, toward 
the sea, of water that had fallen as rain upon the soil farther 
inland. If this be the case, we need not be surprised that the 
salt content of sea beach soils appears to be generally very small, 
notwithstanding that considerable amounts of sea salt are prob- 
ably at times deposited upon the beach by unusually high tides, 
and by spray from the waves. For in addition to this lateral 
movement of fresh water that drains from inland soils into the 
sea, the rain water that falls directly upon the beach and the 
dunes must cause a rapid leaching of soluble salts out of these 
coarse-textured soils, quickly carrying the salts to the depth at 
which the lateral flow of the soil water towards the sea is 
encountered. 
An examination of the salt content of beach sands on the 
Pacific coast of the United States affords data for an interesting 
comparision with conditions on the Atlantic coast, as just 
described. Five borings, each to a depth of 6%, and all within 
a few meters of one another, were made at Long Beach, near 
Los Angeles, California. Here, as is the case with a great part 
of the coast of California, the beach is but a narrow strip of 
sand, limited on the landward side by a line of perpendicular 
water from lat. 35°58'N., eee 2 70°35' W.(t t of the latitude of Cape 
Hatteras) contained 3.611 parts per 100 (Rep. Challenger Exp. 1:41, 43. 1884). Dr. 
Joseph S. Chamberlain panne the mean total solids in three samples of sea water 
the same year, analyzed by Dr. A. P. Sa unders, gave 3.192 parts per 100. Dittmar 
(zbid., p. 203) found the composition of the solids in sea water, in various parts of the 
world and at different depths, to be remarkably uniform. Ta ah the average of 77 
samples, his results in parts per 100 of total solids are as follow 
pests - - : : * - 55-292 
- - - - - - - - 0.188 
cece acid (SO,;) . - - - - - 6.410 
Cart . 3 (CO.) i i s zs i A 0.152 
Lime (CaO) - - - - - - - . 1.676 
Magnesia (MgO) - - - - - - 6.209 
h (K,O) - - - - - : - . 3.332 
Soda (Na,O) - - - - - - : 41.234 
Basic oxygen equivalent to the halogens - - - —12.493 
