56 
NATURE NOTES 
correspondent’s phrase “the so-called” Eoliths? He will, I trust, pardon me 
if I express the hope that the phrase means nothing heretical in connection with 
these important and interesting remains of man’s early occupation of the land? 
February 9, 1903. J. Russell Larkly. 
Silica in Sea-water. — In the article on “ Sea-water ” it is said that “ the 
very minute traces of silica present in sea-water is somewhat puzzling,” meaning 
I presume from the context, that not only is the quantity of calcium carbonate 
small compared to the vast amount required for the supply of lime to corals and 
shell-fish, but that it is a puzzle whence the silica requited by sponges and other 
silica-using organisms is derived. It must he remembered that sea-water contains 
everything soluble that rivers carry down to it, and that hence probably every 
one of the chemical elements could be found in it. We know, for instance, that 
sea-water contains silver, and that iodine and bromine have accumulated in sea- 
water to such an extent that it is the principal industrial source of these now 
important elements. With the exception of the sea-salts carried over the land 
by spray-laden wind in quantity far larger than is generally thought, these mostly 
accumulate in the ocean, to be restored to the land perhaps countless ages after- 
wards in the form of chalk cliffs, &c. The chalk thus deposited countless ages 
ago is now being gradually dissolved by rain-water and carried out by the rivers 
to sea along with other soluble constituents of the soil, to become again absorbed 
by the vast population of shelled sea-animals. Thus goes on the endless change 
in the world. 
Rivers, such as the Thames, flowing through a somewhat calcareous country, 
carry out to sea large quantities of calcium carbonate, as much as twenty grains 
in each gallon, besides half a grain of silica also in solution. Apparently insol- 
uble silicates (even those of glass) are slightly soluble in water, specially if its 
action be aided by carbonic acid ; so, rivers draining a geological formation rich 
in silicates, especially those of crystalline rocks such as basalt, trap, or gneiss, 
carry down a much larger proportion of silica with a less proportion of calcium 
carbonate. 
Many years ago, when Analyst of Water in India, I made a very full study of 
the water of the Mahanuddy (mafia naifi, great river) which drains part of the 
Central Provinces, and falls into the Bay of Bengal near Cuttack. Without 
going into the details of analysis I may say that the water of this river con- 
tained in solution six grains of mineral solids to the gallon ; of these over two 
grains were silica, either in combination or in the free state as silicic hydrate. 
From the data supplied me by the Irrigation Engineers’ department I calcu- 
lated that this river, when in full flood, might carry down to the sea daily, among 
other soluble minerals, 1,000 tons of potash nitre, l,coo tons of bone phos- 
phate (besides 2, coo tons more in the suspended silt), 30,000 tons of silica 
in solution, and about the same quantity of calcium carbonate. There is plenty of 
material for the bones and shells of marine animals, and these take it so freely 
that all along the coasts of India lime is always obtained by burning cockle 
shells dredged from lagoons or from shallow places near the shore. 
Edward Nicholson, 
1, Huskisson Street, Liverpool. Surgeon Lt. -Colonel, A.M.S. 
The Fall of Stones from the Sky.— It can hardly be expected that any 
authority on meteorites will trouble himself to reply to the amusing contribution 
Mr. Hastie has made to the light literature of astronomy. Though Mr. Hastie 
has had much of the field to himself, I really hope that none of your readers will 
conclude that his objections to the fall of meteorites possess any weight whatever, 
or that there is the slightest foundation in fact for the peculiar views he has so 
confidently expressed. More than a generation ago John Hampden pertina- 
ciously maintained his flat-earth theory, and denounced in his dogmatic style all 
those who ventured to differ from him. Argument and experiment alike failed to 
shake his deep-rooted convictions. Mr. Hampden was doubtless perfectly honest 
though sadly erroneous in his beliefs. And Mr. Hastie is equally sincere, though 
just as grievously mistaken, in his opposition to the fact that stones have fallen 
from the sky to the earth. No one who sifts the evidence and is capable of 
forming a just conception from observed and well attested facts can doubt for 
