DIFFERENT SOURCES OF MINE WATERS 505 



(1.) Quiucy mine, fifty-fifth level, north drip; analyzed by Dr G. Fernekes. 

 Note how much larger the calcium is relative to the sodium in this than in 

 analyses (2) and (3). See Proc. Lake Superior Mining Institute, 1908, p. 48. 



(2.) South Kearsarge mine, ninth level; analyzed by Dr G. Fernekes. Ibid., 

 p. 54. 



(3.) Republic mine; analj-zed by Dr G. Fernekes. Ibid., p. 10. 



(4.) Watford, near London; analyzed by Haywood; cited from Whittaker's 

 table, p. 533. 



CEMENTATION A CHECK TO CIRCULATION 



It is clear that the downward working pluvial waters can only enter to 

 any considerable extent so far as an outlet for the escape of the buried 

 connate water is opened, and that tlie process will normally be one of dilu- 

 tion of the connate water, some of which will remain and, homeopathically 

 speaking, be not of a very high potency; but, as A-^an Hise has well empha- 

 sized, the zone of weathering becomes a zone of cementation below, and 

 there is a strong tendency for circulating water, especially on rising and 

 losing heat and pressure, to clog up its own circulation by deposition of 

 the salts it contains. To tlie extent that exit is thus sealed up we may 

 expect that the l)uried or connate Avater will also be hindered in escape. 



We are thus led to the theoretic conclusion that a large part of Yan 

 Hise's meteoric water is connate; l)ut this purely theoretical conclusion 

 was in fact reached from a study of the chemical character of underground 

 waters. 



Chemical Character op underground Waters 

 rain or pluvial waters 



We know the chemical character of rain water and its immediate deriva- 

 tives fairly well.'' It falls with a few parts per million of chlorine, de- 

 rived from the ocean, at the shore. This drops as we leave the seacoast 

 to less than half a part in the Mississippi. Tliere are also traces of ni- 

 trates and nitric acid after thunderstorms, and there is a little COo ; but 

 the total of all constituents other than HoO is far less than 50 parts per 

 million. Passing through the soil, it is notably enriched in CO, and 

 organic acids which change to CO,, and also, as the Department of Agri- 

 culture has shown (Cameron), measurable quantities of the various bases. 



When the water gets through this part of its course and becomes the 

 ordinary spring, phreatic, or vadose water, though it varies greatly in 

 character, yet it lias generally a certain type. The leading acid ions are 



' See the Chemische Geologie, by J. Rotli ; Van den Broeck's "M^moire yur les Phe- 

 nom^es d'alteration des Eaux Meteoriques" ; also BuUetins 28, by Cushman, and 49, by 

 Cameron, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



