410 
ACKIiOYI) : ox THE CIRCULATION OF SALT. 
reagent wlien brought into contact with silicates like those which 
formed the primitive crust. As a result of its action saline solutions 
and chemical deposits would be formed ; the latter, however, would 
probably be of no great thickness, for the time occupied by the ocean 
in cooling to a temperature not far removed from the present would 
probably be included within a few lumdreds of years."*"* 
This view of things is opposed to uniformity of rate of solvent 
denudation, and leads to the direct inference that in the later age 
of the earth such changes are proceeding at a very much slower rate. 
I see no objection to a varying rate in the facts adduced by Dr. Joly 
as confirmation of his hypothesis of uniformity from the first. He 
points out that the sum of the soda now in the ocean and in the 
sedimentaries would nearly suffice to effect the full restoration of this 
constituent to the original igneous rock. Such facts are equally 
in keeping with an imequal distribution of the work of denudation 
over the period of the Earth's age, that it was rapid at first and after- 
wards slower and slower with the flow of time, and the slower the 
rate at which one can prove it to be now proceeding, the more 
prodigious must liave been the initial rate to yield the final colossal 
sum of oceanic contents. 
Ox TJiK Ratio of Sea-salt to Earth-salt ix River \Yater. 
It will be apparent that if we have to get an idea of the rate at 
which solvent denudation is now proceeding it will be necessary 
to find what proportion of earth-salt rivers are carrying to the sea 
along with the cyclic sea-salt. I have to offer the followang attempt 
at a solution of the problem for the source of the Aire. 
A gravimetric analysis of Craven limestone gave Q-Ol per cent, 
of chlorine. The water at Malham Cove is of 10° of hardness, and 
contains a total of "7 parts of chlorine per gallon. Therefore, every 
gallon of water at the Cove contains 
Grains. 
Cakium Carbonate 
Chlorine in earth-salt 
Chlorine in sea-salt 
10-000 
0-001 
0-699 
' B.A. Report, 1900, p. 716. 
