APRIL 11, 1884.] 
SCIENCE. 
463 
INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey. 
Division of chemistry. — During February, Prof. 
F. W. Clarke and Dr. T. H. Chatard completed 
analyses of waters from Utah Hot Springs, Lake 
Tahoe, and from Alum Creek in the Yellowstone 
National Park. They have also analyzed some rocks 
and sediments collected in the Great Basin. —— Dr. 
Chatard has begun investigations into a new method 
of silicate analyses, the results of which promise to 
be of importance. —— Professor Clarke has analyzed 
halotrichite and alunogen from a large deposit at the 
head waters of the Gila, in New Mexico; saussurite 
from California; allanite from Topsham, Me.; a 
mineral near cimolite from Norway, Me.; a hand- 
some chlorite from Georgetown, D.C.; and an ex- 
ceedingly interesting variety of pectolite, simulating 
jade, from Alaska. 
Professor Clarke has also completed the analyses 
of two more mineral-waters from Montana, collected 
by Dr. A. C. Peale last summer. One of them is a 
ealcic thermal water from:a spring in Emigrant 
Gulch, on the west side of the Yellowstone valley, 
opposite Bottler’s ranch. This water contains .2350 
of a gram of solid matter to the litre. The tempera- 
ture of the water at the spring is 38°.8 C., and the 
flow of water is large. The other water is also from 
the Yellowstone valley, the spring being situated on 
the upper waters of Mill Creek, about ten miles due 
east from Riverside, one of the stations on the Park 
branch of the Northern Pacific railroad. Professor 
Clarke finds this to be a good mineral-water. It con- 
tains 3.8125 grams of solid matter to the litre, 
mainly sodium, magnesium, and calcium carbonates, 
with considerable sodium sulphate, and small propor- 
tions of chlorides. The water also contains iodine; 
but the quantity brought to the laboratory was too 
small to estimate its amount. This water is very 
agreeable to the taste. It resembles very much the 
‘ Apollinaris’ water from the valley of the Ahr in 
Prussia; and from this resemblance the springs have 
been named the ‘Mill Creek Apollinaris springs.’ 
The water is cold, having a temperature of 4°.5 C. 
Mr. F. A. Gooch, formerly of the Northern trans- 
continental survey, has been appointed assistant 
chemist, to begin work in the laboratory at Wash- 
ington April 1.—— Messrs. Barus and Hallock at the 
laboratory at New Haven, needing some capillary 
wire tubes, and being unable to find any, have suc- 
ceeded in making them at the laboratory. 
Crater Lake, Oregon. — Among the interesting 
places visited by Mr. J. S. Diller, in his reconnois- 
sance of the Cascade Range last summer, was Crater 
Lake, about two or three miles west of Mount Scott. 
This is a body of water some three miles in diameter, 
lying in a depression some two thousand feet below 
the general level surrounding it. The sides are in 
general perpendicular, and the water is of a most 
beautiful tint. Toward the western end of the lake 
there is a small conical island, the rock of which 
resembles basalt, although Mr. Diller has not yet 
made a careful examination of it. The rocks form- 
ing the walls of the lake are andesitic. The general 
elevation of the country immediately about the lake 
is between two thousand: and three thousand feet 
lower than the summit of Mount Scott. Capt. Dut- 
ton is convinced, from Mr. Diller’s description of the 
lake, that it is homologous with the craters studied 
by him in the Hawaiian Islands. To the latter Capt. 
Dutton gives the name of ‘caldeiros.? He says the 
first view of them does away with the idea that they 
are ordinary craters. They are huge caldrons or boil- 
ing lakes of molten rock. 
Miscellaneous. — Capt. Dutton has received letters 
from Honolulu, by the steamer leaving there March 
3, which state, that, for the few days preceding that 
date, the ‘red sunsets’ have been exceedingly bril- 
liant. —— During February, Mr. Vanhise, one of Mr. 
R. D. Irving’s assistants, prepared about fifty new 
thin rock-sections, among which were a large num- 
ber of greenstones. 
RECENT PROCHKEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
American society of civil engineers. 
April 2.— The subject for discussion was the re- 
duction of grades necessary to be made upon railway- 
curves to compensate for the increased resistance to 
the traction of the locomotive when traversing curves, 
in comparison with resistances encountered upon 
straight lines. The various forces composing such 
resistances have been combined in a formula deduced 
mathematically; but careful experiments which have 
been made tend to show that no formula has yet been 
found which is of general application. The rules 
adopted upon various great railway-lines were stated ; 
but it was plain that additional information must be 
obtained before positive rules of general application 
could be given. 
Chemical society, Washington. 
March 27.— Papers were read as follows: F. W. 
Clarke, A new variety of pectolite from Alaska. —— 
Dr. J. H. Kidder, The use of the Nessler reagent in 
air analyses. In several cases the air-washings which 
were under examination gave a distinct, clear, green 
coloration in place of the characteristic yellowish- 
brown precipitate produced by ammonia. This color 
was also found in a few experiments upon rain and 
snow waters, but never in dealing with drinking- 
waters. Dr. Kidder is inclined to ascribe the new 
