( 397 ) 
chlorine and sodium as the Meuse, the population on its drainage 
area however amounts to 5.000.000, and Bohemia is, like Belgium, 
one of the first manufacturing countries of Europe. The evaporating 
quotient is in the area of this river at least 4, according.to an 
estimate by HARLACHER!). Although detailed facts are not at hand 
it may be accepted that the supply of sodium by chemical denuda- 
tion is but little larger here than that of the Meuse and, moreover, 
that without the afore mentioned pollution there would be a deficit 
of chlorine to combine with the sodium. | 
In the area of the Danube above Vienna, the population is not 
nearly so dense and the consumption of sea salt in manufactories much 
less important. We therefore find in the water of this river a smaller 
quantity of sodium and a much smaller quantity of chlorine than 
in the Meuse and the Elbe. 
From the consideration of those three most reliable and valuable 
analyses of river water the average quantity of sodium admitted 
by Jouy according to MuURRAY’s estimate proves far too high. 
Amongst others this appears also in the St. Lawrence, which 
river (important not only as a large stream, but also because of its 
being the outlet of a number of immense lakes) drains at its origin 
in Lake Superior a region of old sandstones and crystalline rocks, 
but afterwards passes through lakes receiving water from a region 
of palaeozoic strata, containing much rock salt. The ratio of rainfall 
to the discharge of water is 3.9. Here too a large reduction of 
the figures found in the analysis ought to be made. 
What is most apparent in our table, besides the greatly varying 
quantity of sodium in the river water, is the almost general deficit 
of chlorine to combine with the existing quantity of that metallic 
element. There is, almost always more sodium than could combine 
with the chlorine in the same river water. In such rivers where 
this is not the case we can account for this deviation by the 
presence of considerable amounts of other chlorides, refuse from 
manufactories, as is the case with the Meuse and the Elbe, or we 
can attribute it to accidental circumstances, where the difference is 
small and where only one analysis has been taken (and perhaps 
even no separate determination of sodium, as in the case of the 
Amazonas at Obidos). The water of the Dwina, the Weser and the 
Nahe has had the opportunity of taking*from the%soil*in the drai- 
nage area considerable quantities of chloride of potassium. 
1) Cited in: F. PoSnpny, Zur Genesis der Salzablagerungen, besonders jener im 
nordamerikanischen Westen, Sitzb. d. math.-naturw. Cl. Akad. d. Wiss. Wien, 1877, 
Bd. 76, Abth, I, p. 193. 
