666 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 382. 



northern and southern margins than in its 

 central mass. It may therefore be regarded 

 as having two axes, each formed by the older 

 Paleozoic rocks, which seem to mark lines of 

 maxirmim uplift. Continued with diminish- 

 ing height to the westward, the northern axis 

 seems to terminate in the Paleozoic rocks 

 which form the low mountains and set cliffs at 

 Cape Lisburne, while the southern axis marks 

 the watershed between the Noatak and Kobuk 

 rivers. The rocks composing the range com- 

 prise several metamorphic series of limestones, 

 slates, conglomerates, and some schists, rang- 

 ing from Upper Silurian to Lower Carbonif- 

 erous, and all much older than the rocks 

 forming the rolling plateau country on either 

 side of the range. 



Along its northern base the range is met by 

 a gently rolling plateau country, 2,000 feet 

 high, composed of Lower and Upper Cre- 

 taceous beds. This plateau slopes gently to 

 the north for one hundred miles, where it 

 falls off to the Arctic coastal plain. This 

 coastal plain is underlain by Tertiary beds of 

 Pliocene and Oligocene. In the Cretaceous 

 plateau country the aspect of the topography 

 is softened by the presence of drift, showing 

 glacial action to have extended nearly one 

 hundred miles to the north of the mountains. 

 The Colville, like other of the large rivers of 

 northern Alaska, has by lateral migration so 

 encroached upon its western banls that it now 

 enters the ocean at a point approximately 

 thirty miles west from where it debouched in 

 late Tertiary or early Pleistocene time. Along 

 the coast the margin of the coastal plain is 

 fringed by tidal lagoons and embayments and 

 dotted by lakelets. In the low bluffs and sea 

 cliffs ground ice is in many places exposed. 

 These ice strata rise to a height of twenty 

 feet above sea level and extend inland for 

 unknown distances, while the surface is 

 mantled by a sheet of muck and moss but a 

 foot or two in thickness. 



Alfred H. Brooks, 



Secretary. 



CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 133d regular meeting of the Chemical 

 Society of Washington was held March 12. 

 The following program was presented: 



Dr. W. F. Hillebrand: 'Common Errors in 

 the Determination of Silica.' This paper was 

 presented by Dr. Hillebrand at the winter 

 meeting of the American Chemical Society, 

 and was published in the April number of the 

 Journal of the American Chemical Society. 



Dr. E. T. Allen: 'Researches on the Oxides 

 of Tungsten.' 



1. When tungstic acid is reduced by stan- 

 nous chloride at 100° C, or by hydriodie 

 acid in sealed tubes at 200° C, the product 

 is an indigo-blue powder of the composition 

 WsOjj.H.O. This compound is changed to 

 tungstic acid by most oxidizing agents. In 

 hydrochloric acid it is insoluble. Caustic 

 alkalies dissolve it with evolution of hydrogen 

 and formation of alkaline tungstate. So far 

 no salt has been obtained from it. Its for- 

 mula agrees with that of the blue oxide of 

 molybdenum, MOjOj^.GHjO, recently studied 

 by Guichard. 



2. Concentrated anamonia extracts tungstic 

 acid from the blue oxide, leaving a residue 

 which is purple with a strong bronze luster. 

 Its formula is WjOj.HjO. The chemical prop- 

 erties of this body are similar to those of the 

 blue oxide. Thus it is insoluble in hydro- 

 chloric acid, soluble in caustic alkalies with 

 evolution of hydrogen, and more readily at- 

 tacked by oxidizing agents than the blue 

 oxide. It finds an analogue among the oxides 

 of uranium (UjOs.xH^G). 



3. In composition and color these two oxides 

 are closely related to the tungsten bronzes. 

 Thus we have W,0„.M,0, where M,=K:„ 

 ISTa,, Li„, or Ba, all dark Hue in color; and 

 WjO^.M^O, where M.^lSTa, or K,, both having 

 a metallic luster, while WjOs-K^O, described 

 by Hallopean as a, reddish- violet powder 

 with a copper reflex, recalls WjOj.H^O in a 

 striking way. Direct transformation of these 

 bronzes into the two oxides mentioned in this 

 paper, or vice versa, has not been accom- 

 plished. 



L. S. MUNSON, 



Secretary. 



BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



At the general meeting of the Society held 

 on February 5, 1902, the president made the 



