Skey. — On the Soluhility of Calcic Carbonate in Alkaline Chlorides. 449 



tions to the working of any payable cobaltic vein which such feebly 

 cobaltic ore may indicate. I accordingly tested a number of our ores most 

 likely for cobalt very rigorously, but I am sorry to have to inform you that 

 the results obtained were in every case entirely negative. I do not mean to 

 be understood by this as affirming the non-existence of cobalt in all these 

 cases, but only that I could not find it by any ordinary course of analysis, 

 and in consequence if it is present it can only be so in quantity so minute 

 as to be of no indicatory value when found. 



But although such is the character of my results I make no apology for 

 bringing them under your notice, as I ara under the impression that you 

 will think it a serviceable act to make public in this way the fact that certain 

 of our ores — greatly resembling the cobaltic ore, asbolite — are not cobaltic, 

 and do not indicate the existence of such an ore in the neighbourhood they 

 are in. 



Those I have tested are from Wellington, Nelson, Marlborough, and 

 Auckland. 



All these are essentially hydrous oxides of manganese with varying pro- 

 portions of iron oxide. 



It will be very interesting for us to know the matrix of the New Cale- 

 donian ore and the geological character of the formation in which it occurs. 

 I observe that the ore contains a little chromate of iron (crystalline), a fact 

 which would seem to indicate that it occurs in some serpentine rock. 



Art. LXYII. — On the Solubility of Calcic Carbonate in Solutions of the 

 Alkaline Chlorides. By W. Skey, Analyst to the Geological Survey 

 Department. 



[Read before the Wellington PhilosojoMcal Society, 12th January, 1878.J 

 A SHORT time ago I had, in the course of my professional duties, to ascer- 

 tain the reason why a rapid formation of sediment occurred within a 

 locomotive boiler at Oamaru, the supply for which had been a hard water, 

 upon which Clarke's softening process was applied before use. 



This rax^id formation of sediment is a very serious matter, and it was. 

 suggested to me that the process in question had not been properly worked 

 in this case. A careful examination, however, of the lime-water used to 

 soften the water, of the sediment, and of the water in its normal state, 

 clearly showed me that no charge of this nature could be sustained. 



r2 



