August 6, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



165 



stituent, amounting to 233 parts per mil- 

 lion out of 540 of total impurity. This 

 water evidently rises from beds of zinc ores, 

 and resembles the mine M-aters of the same 

 region. 



Forty-three waters from the Yellowstone 

 National Park, anatyzed by Gooch and 

 Whitfield,* form a group of unusual in- 

 terest. Among them are geyser waters, 

 which deposit siliceoias sinter and which 

 contain in nearly all cases appreciable 

 quantities of boric acid, lithia, arsenic 

 and other unusual constituents. One hot 

 spring in this group, the Devil's Inkpot, is 

 unique. Its water is strongly acid, and 

 contains 3.39 grams per kilogram of im- 

 purities. Of this impurity ammoniiun sul- 

 phate amounts to 2.82 grams, or more than 

 83 per cent. In addition to their study of 

 the waters, Gooch and Whitfield analyzed 

 many sinters, tufas, sediments and incrus- 

 tations deposited by them, finding some 

 substances of peculiar interest. One spring 

 in particular was characterized by a deposit 

 of scorodite, an arsenate of iron. 



A second important group of waters is 

 that represented by the saline and alkaline 

 lakes of Nevada and southern California. 

 Some of these waters are highly concen- 

 trated, and yield upon fractional evapora- 

 tion large quantities of sodium carbonate. 

 At Owens Lake, in California, sodium car- 

 bonate has been extracted on a commercial 

 scale, and its production was carefully 

 studied by Dr. T. M. Chatard." The "nat- 

 ural soda" manufactured at Owens Lake 

 was obtained in the form of trona or urao, 

 a compound which Chatard studied thor- 

 oughty, and reproduced in the laboratory, 

 thereby establishing its true composition 

 beyond farther doubt. Chatard 's memoir 



» Bull. 47, U. S. Geol. Survey. 



"Bull. 60, U. S. Geological Survey, pp. 27-101. 

 The formula of trona, established by Chatard, is 

 Na,C03.NaHC03-2H,0. 



upon "natural soda" is a very complete 

 summar}^ of the entire subject. 



Another remarkable water, that of Steam- 

 boat Springs, Nevada, was studied by 

 Becker and Melville" in the San Francisco 

 laboratory. This water contains notable 

 quantities of borates, and it deposits a sin- 

 ter carrying sulphides of arsenic, antimony, 

 mercury, lead and copper, together with 

 determinable amounts of gold and silver. 

 Two other hot waters, from Sulphur Bank, 

 California, also reported by Becker and 

 Melville, were very rich in borates. At 

 Steamboat Springs such minerals as meta- 

 stibuite and cinnabar were caught in the 

 verj^ act of their formation. In connection 

 with their study of these waters, Becker 

 and Melville" made a series of experiments 

 upon the solubility of various substances 

 in solutions of alkaline sulphides and hy- 

 drosulphides. The sulphides of mercury, 

 copper, zinc and iron (both pyrite and 

 marcasite) were found to be, under suitable 

 conditions of temperature and concentra- 

 tion, distinctly soluble; the sulphides of 

 silver and lead were not. Metallic gold 

 also dissolved perceptibly. These experi- 

 ments shed much light upon the deposition 

 of the metallic ores, and explain the pecu- 

 liar composition of the sinter mentioned 

 above. 



Under the water resources branch of the 

 survey a much larger hydrochemical in- 

 vestigation was undertaken. Under Mr. M. 

 0. Leighton and Mr. R. B. Dole, with the 

 aid of other chemists, the composition of 

 many river and lake waters was deter- 

 mined, partly in a special laboratory in 

 Washington, and partly in laboratories con- 

 nected with other institutions in various 

 parts of the United States. In all approxi- 

 mately 5,000 analyses were made of waters 



'°See G. F. Becker, U. S. Geological Survey 

 Monograph 13. 



" Amer. Journ. Sci. (3), 33, 199. 



