— 152 — 
carefully prepared layer of ground shale, seven to eight inches deep, 80 0/0 
of the tolal nitrate present could be obtained by employing eighty parts of 
water to one hundred parts of nitrate. The final product on evaporating the 
liquor to dryness contained : 
0/0 
Sodium Nitrate 5o . 6 
Soilium Gliloride 38.6 
Sodium Sulphate 10.8 
It is thus obvious that methods are available for obtaining salts rich in 
nitrate even from poor materials. It may be of interest to compare the above 
results with those recorded by Professor B. Diaz-Ossa in a note on L'Industrie 
du Nitrate de Soude an Chili. The well-known « Caliche r of the Chilian Nitrate 
region is variable in composition, the analyses quoted give : 
I II 
0/0 0/0 
Sodium Nitrate 36 35 
Sodium Chloride 32 6 
Sodium Sulphate 8 9 
To obtain a product with 96 to 96 0/0 of Sodium Nitrate, 2 ojo moisture, i 
to 3 0/0 Sodium Chloride, and o.5 to 1 0/0 of Sodium Sulphate and other salts, 
the water required vdries between 80 and 1 5o litres per 1 00 kilogrammes of 
nitrate produced. The average consumption of coal is 2 5 kilogrammes for 
every 1 00 kilogrammes of nitrate and under the conditions in these desert re- 
gions no work can be undertaken on caliche containing less than 1 8 0^0 of nitrate. 
A table is also given, showing the relative amounts of salts present in the 
saturated liquids at various temperatures : 
T E M P li B A T U U E 
CEMIGRADE. 
GRAMS PER LITRE. 
SODIUM 
NITRATE. 
SODIUM 
CHLORIDE. 
SODIUM 
SULPHATE. 
3(J0 
1 80 
10 
30° 
igo 
l65 
/la 
5o° 
594 
1 63 
ho 
70° 
700 
1 00 
3a 
90° 
825 
9G 
a 3 
1 000 
70 
20 
