542 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



9. Water from the Asxiniboiiic Eircr one-fourth of a mile abore its Junction wilk the lied Hirer 



Ingredients diesolTed in the water. 



Carbonate of lime 



Carbonate of magnesia 



.Sulphate of potash 



Sulphate of soda 



Chloride of sodium 



Total 



173.0 

 137.7 



13.2 

 117.4 



46.8 



35.4 

 28.2 



2.7 

 24.1 



9.6 



100.0 



Grains per 

 gallon. 



10. 090 

 8.027 

 .769 

 6.845 

 2.730 



28. 461 



The hardness of this water was 20.6 degrees, being slightly less, like 

 its total content of mineral matter, than in the water of the Red River at 

 the confluence of the Assiniboine. The stage of rivers, whether in partial 

 flood or at the low level of seasons of drought, decides to a large extent 

 whether their dissolved ingredients are little or much. The amount of 

 clayey mud and fine sand borne along mechanically suspended in the 

 water of rivers is vastly increased by their rise and stronger currents in 

 times of floods; but the amount of matter dissolved in the water, which is 

 the only portion considered in these analyses, is then much less than at 

 their lowest stages, when they hold little or no mud in suspension. 



Although in the waters of the last two analyses the Red River had 

 more dissolved matter, both mineral and organic, than the Assiniboine, the 

 average proi)ortion of tlie latter throughout the year is probably the greater. 

 Samples of water from tliese streams, similarly collected by Dr. Robert Bell 

 and analyzed by Dr. Baker Edwards, showed only about two-thirds as 

 much of both mineral and organic matter in the Red River as in the Assini- 

 boine.^ These samples were collected October 18, 1873, and those of 

 analyses 8 and 9 were taken on October 26, 1879. Recent rains in larger 

 amount on one of these Isasins than on the other, or dift'erences in their 

 volume due to lack of rainfall, probably account for these different results 

 of the analyses. 



'Gcol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Canada, Report of Progress for 1878-79, pp. 7-12 C. 



