HEAT PHENOMENA. 237 



simple, but they were employed with such ingenuity as to enable him to 

 obtain very accurate results. The execution of the experiments was most 

 conscientious and laborious. 



No positive results obtained. — Tho teuiperature of the rock-mass never rose 

 above that of the surrounding steam. The rock seemed wholly unaffected 

 by the process, except that the fragments were more or less coated with 

 a fine dust, probably due to the salts contained in the water, which was 

 obtained from the Virginia Water Company's pipes. 



Little kaoiinization at Washoe.— Souie time after thc exBcutlon of these experi- 

 ments a special examination of the sHdes and a comparison of chemical 

 analyses led me to the conclusion that there has been only a trifling amount 

 of kaolinization in the Washoe rocks. This fact makes the experiments 

 none the less important, for the heat of the Lode might be due to other 

 chemical changes than kaolinization. 



Conclusions regarding the hypothesis. — lu shoit, thc obsBrvations as to the risc of 

 temperature of flooded drifts lack confirmation; experiment fails to show 

 that hot water or steam have any action on the east country rock of the Lode ; 

 there appear no theoretical grounds for the assertion that kaolinization 

 would produce a considerable amount of heat, and no evidence that any 

 considerable amount of kaolinization has gone on in the District. It is still 

 possible that when kaolinization occurs heat is liberated. It is also possible 

 that at temperatures above 212° and at pressures above one atmosphere, 

 feldspars are kaolinized near the Comstock fissure, but it no longer appears 

 reasonable to ascribe the heating of drifts, which are neariy at the normal 

 pressure, to the action of water below the boiling point upon the rock. 

 The scene of kaolinization, if it exists at all, must therefore be at great 

 depths, such as are indicated in the discussion of the increase of tempera- 

 ture from the surface downward. It cannot be demonstrated that the heat 

 of the Comstock is not due to the prevalence at unknown depths and press- 

 ures of a chemical change of unknown thermal relations, neither is there 

 any evidence that it does arise from such a cause; and the suggestion that 

 the heat of the Steamboat Springs and the ordinary variations of earth tem- 

 peratures are induced by kaolinization, is therefore foreign to the subject of 

 this memoir. 



