ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. XXXIX. 



and causing them to behave in the elutriator as if they 

 were sand grains. In order to eliminate the fibre the 

 author uses a solution of zinc chloride in hydrochloric acid 

 (40f° HC1) with gratifying results. A weighed quantity, 

 30 gm. of the soil is passed through a sieve containing 50 

 meshes to the inch, and the resulting line soil boiled in 

 about 100 cc. of the above solution for half an hour. The 

 mass is then cooled, diluted, washed out into the elutriating 

 vessel and the water allowed to flow through. When the 

 overflow water is quite clear, the residue is washed out, 

 dried on the water bath and weighed as sand. A peaty 

 oil containing 22*7°/° of organic matter yielded 57°/° of sand 

 by boiling with water alone as compared with 6"17f° by the 

 zinc chloride process. Microscopical examination proved 

 the latter to be practically pure sand, while the former 

 contained an overwhelming proportion of clay and vegetable 

 matter. A comparative table is shown giving percentages 

 of sand obtained on treatment with different reagents, from 

 typical soils to which this method more particularly applies. 



Remarks were made by Mr. F. B. Guthrie, Dr. R. Greig 

 Smith, Mr. J. H. Maiden, Dr. Harker, and His Honor 

 Judge Docker. Mr. Cohen replied. 



2. "Latitude of the Sydney Observatory," — appendix to a 

 paper on the " Provisional Determination of Astro- 

 nomical Refraction, from observations made with the 

 Meridian Circle instrument of the Sydney Observatory," 

 by C. J. Merfield, f.r.a.s., Mitglieder cler Astrono- 

 mischen Gesellschaft. 



This paper contains determination of the latitude of the 

 Sydney Meridian Circle instrument, deduced from zenith 

 pairs used in a previous work, on astronomical refraction, 

 recently communicated. The adopted latitude 



<£= -33° 51' 41*1" 

 depended on observations taken, by the Rev. W. Scott, m,a., 



