IX.] CHEMISTRY OF NATURAL WATERS. 121 



40. The brines from the valley of the Alleghany Eiver, 

 obtained from borings in the coal formation, are remarkable for 

 containing large proportions of chlorides of calcium and magne- 

 sium ; though the sum of these, according to the analyses of 

 Lenny, is never equal to more than about one fourth of the 

 chloride of sodium. The presence of salts of barium and stron- 

 tium in these brines, and the consequent absence of sulphates, 

 is, according to Lenny, a, constant character in this region over 

 an area of two thousand square miles. (See Bischof, Chem. 

 Geol., I. 377.) A later analysis of another one of these waters 

 from the same region, by Steiner, is cited by Will and Kopp, 

 Jahresbericht, 1861, p. 1112. His results agree closely with 

 those of Lenny. See also the analysis of a bittern from this 

 region by Boye. (Amer. Jour. Sci. (2), VII. 74.)* 



These remarkable waters approach in character to those of 

 Whitby and Hallowell; but in this the chloride of sodium 

 forms only about one half the solid contents, and the propor- 

 tion of the chloride of magnesium to the chloride of calcium is 

 relatively much greater than in the waters from western Penn- 

 sylvania, where the magnesian chloride is equal only to from 

 one third to one fifth of the chloride of calcium ; the proportions 

 of the two being subject in both regions to considerable varia- 

 tions. 



In this connection may be cited a water from Bras d'Or in 

 the island of Cape Breton, lately analyzed by Professor How, 

 which contains in 1,000 parts, chloride of sodium 4.901, chloride 

 of potassium 0.650, chloride of calcium 4.413, and chloride of 

 magnesium only 0.638, besides sulphate of lime 0.134, carbon- 

 ates of lime and magnesia 0.085, with traces of iron-oxide and 

 phosphates; = 10.821. (Canadian Naturalist, VIII. 370.) 



the recent water, or in water not siifficiently boiled, the lime and magnesia 

 which would by prolonged ebullition be separated as carbonates, together with 

 portions of alumina, silica, etc. In the subsequent calculation of the analyses, 

 these dissolved earthy bases being regarded as sulphates or chlorides, instead 

 of carbonates, there remains an excess of soda, which is wrongly represented 

 as carbonate, instead of chloride or sulphate of sodium. 



* [For further examples of waters of this class from western Ontario, see 

 the Supplement to this paper.] 



