TIIE ALKALINE AND BOEACIC LAKES OF CALIFORNIA. 163- 
being attacked by hydrochloric acid, and contains silica, alu- 
mina, lime, ferrous oxide, and magnesia. Similar deposits 
containing borax exist in Panamit and Death’s Valley, in 
Lower Nevada ; but these desolate districts have not as yet 
received so careful an examination as they deserve. 
About twenty miles west of San Bernardino is the so-called 
44 Cane Spring District,” where ulexite or boronatrocalcite is 
found, over an area about ten miles in width by fifteen in 
length. The surface of the ground is covered by efflorescent 
salts, commonly known as 44 alkali,” beneath which the borax 
salts (chiefly ulexite) are found at a depth of only a few inches. 
At Hot Springs, in the north-western portion of the State of 
Nevada, at a height of 4,500 ft. above the level of the sea, and 
where the water issuing from the ground has a temperature of 
about 190° Fah., there are deposits of boronatrocalcite, extend- 
ing over considerable areas. Here, as far as the eye can reach, 
nothing is seen but barren mountains, formed of a black porous, 
lava; while the valleys are covered by an efflorescence of a mix- 
ture of common salt and sulphate and carbonate of sodium. In 
other cases the sands of these mountain valleys contain deposits 
of more or less pare boronatrocalcite. 
Gfeysers and hot springs are numerous in the whole of this 
district, and from the number of extinct geyser vents still 
visible, they were, probably, at one time much more numerous 
than at present. 
The analysis of an average sample of the boracic material 
from Nevada afforded Mr. Loew the following results : — 
The purification of crude borax ( tinccil ) is effected by a 
simple re-crystallization, but the preparation of marketable 
borax from boronatrocalcite is attended with considerable diffi- 
culty, more particularly as the appliances available in the 
remote deserts in which it occurs are of the most primitive and 
limited description. 
Boronatrocalcite 
Chloride of sodium 
Sulphate of sodium 
Sulphate of calcium 
Carbonate of calcium 
Carbonate of magnesium . 
Clay ..... 
Quartzose sand 
Water 
Traces of potash, iodine, and loss 
22-1.3 
2-80 
2-62 
6-17 
3-01 
•70 
19-70 
26-03 
15-04 
1-71 
100 - 00 * 
* “ Moniteur Scientificpie,” 1876, p. 1230. 
