J 



OCTOBEE 12, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



359 



etc., is sketched out, but no details are given 

 of any work that has been actually accom- 

 plished. 



In connection with the search for potash 

 and nitrates in the United States the gov- 

 ernment receives many reports of supposedly 

 valuable discoveries. A letter recently re- 

 ceived by the TJnited States Geological Survey 

 of the Interior Department describes a cave 

 in one of the Southern States which was 

 worked by the Confederacy during the Civil 

 War for potassium nitrate. This cave is said 

 to contain at least 1,000,000 tons of nitrous 

 earth, which, however, contains only 1 to 3 

 per cent, of nitrate. The survey now states 

 that it seems very doubtful whether such ma- 

 terial can be profitably used as a source of 

 nitrate salts. The minimum grade of caliche 

 now worked in the Chilean fields contains 12 

 per cent, of sodium nitrate, and though there 

 has been much criticism of the crudeness of 

 the methods employed there, the work is done 

 by very cheap Indian labor, and it is doubtful 

 whether leaner material could be worked to 

 advantage here, where the price of labor is so 

 much higher. Several hundred thousand dol- 

 lars have recently been expended in one of the 

 Western States in testing the proposition to 

 utilize low-grade nitrate. The results have 

 been negative. The nitrate caves in the South 

 were worked during the Civil War by very 

 crude methods. Generally the cave earth was 

 shoveled into iron pots, where it was treated 

 with water and heated over wood fires to leach 

 out its soluble parts. The liquor was drawn 

 from one pot into another and used for treat- 

 ing fresh material until it became a highly 

 concentrated solution of nitrate salts. It was 

 then drawn off and allowed to cool, whereupon 

 the nitrate crystallized. The remaining liquor 

 was then employed to leach fresh material and 

 the crystals were separated and sacked for use. 



To make the desert regions of the western 

 part of the United States more accessible by 

 locating their widely separated watering places 

 and erecting hundreds of signposts to give 

 directions and distances to the watering places 

 is an interesting and practical project recently 

 undertaken by the United States Geological 



Survey, Department of the Interior. The 

 project involves also the work of making ac- 

 curate maps showing the locations of the 

 watering places, of preparing guides describing 

 them and giving the distances between them, 

 of selecting well sites, and of developing water- 

 ing places (so far as money available wiU 

 permit) in localities where water is most 

 needed and where the geologic investigations 

 indicate that ujiderground supplies can be ob- 

 tained. It is expected that this work will 

 help to expedite the discovery and develop- 

 ment of the rich mineral deposits in parts of 

 these regions. It will, of course, also be valu- 

 able in other respects. In recent years the 

 water-supply geologists of the Geological Sur- 

 vey have developed trustworthy methods of 

 locating ground water in arid regions from 

 surface indications and of estimating the 

 depth to water and the approximate annual 

 yield of the underground reservoirs. These 

 methods will be applied and further developed 

 in connection with the survey of desert water- 

 ing places. A number of Survey parties are 

 now being organized in Washington and will 

 in a few weeks be at work in the most arid 

 parts of Arizona, California, and Nevada. 

 Each party will consist of a geologist and one 

 or more assistants and will be provided with 

 an automobile and camping outfit. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



The will of Miss Kate Collins Brown, for- 

 merly of New Orleans, who died on August 19, 

 disposes of an estate of more than $700,000 of 

 which she left nearly $500,000 in direct be- 

 quests and gave the residue to Columbia and 

 jSTew York Universities and the Presbyterian 

 Hospital. The share of the educational in- 

 stitutions is to establish scholarships paying 

 $300 a year to needy students. 



The Pacific Coast Gas Association has given 

 $4,415 to the University of California to 

 further instruction and research in gas engi- 

 neering. 



The nineteenth annual conference of the 

 Association of American Universities will hold 



