480 E. M. KINDLE SEPARATION OF SALT FROM SALINE WATER 



In saline mud which holds a very small percentage of salt, desiccation 

 produces only a thin film of saline matter on the surface similar in color 

 to the mud and neither cubic nor acicular salt crystals are formed. 



An interesting feature of the desiccated saline mud is the presence 

 throughout the material of numerous minute cavities. These cavities 

 were first noted in experimenting with the Pleistocene blue clay, where 



Figure 5. — Mud-crack in a fresh-water Mixture of slaked Lime 



they had usually a diameter of from one-third to one-half a millimeter. 

 Desiccated mud made with fresh water from the same clay showed no 

 trace of the cavities, thus indicating that this feature was due to the pres- 

 ence of the salt. This remarkable contrast between the texture of desic- 

 cated mud containing salt and the texture of dried mud free from salt 

 was verified by a number of tests in which clay from the bottom of Lake 

 Ontario was used. In these tests duplicate lots of mud were desiccated in 



