116 
PROCEEDINGS OE THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, 
rence elsewhere was ascertained and experiments undertaken to determine 
how sand may be floated, what sand will float, and why sand will float. 
The experiments, which were carefully performed, are minutely de¬ 
scribed, and the behavior of no less than fourteen different kinds of sand 
from widely separated localities tabulated. The conclusions reached are: 
1. That sand grains will float in perfectly still water for an indefinite 
time. 
2. That the grains which float are not necessarily siliceous. That 
flakes of mica, fragments of marble, bituminous shale, etc., also float, 
and that some of them, the marble and the bituminous shale, for ex¬ 
ample, are unusually buoyant. 
3. That the property of floating is not confined to the sand of any 
particular locality, but depends to a considerable extent upon the angu¬ 
larity, i. e., the shape, of the grains. 
4. That whether sand will float or not depends, also, upon the mode 
of launching. Whether it be by ripple waves, as stated by Mr. Graham, 
or by undermining, it must be gently done, for should the grains be 
plunged into the water with sufficient force to completely immerse them 
they will immediately sink. 
5. That the natural conditions necessary to the floating of sand in 
rivers are somewhat unusual, depending, in the case of the Llano, upon a 
flood without local rains, and, in that of the Connecticut (where a sim¬ 
ilar phenomenon had been observed), upon the manner in which certain 
waves strike a sandbar. It is quite possible, however, that floating sand 
is much more common than is ordinarily supposed. 
6. That the physical explanation of the problem is complex rather 
than simple, and at best unsatisfactory in several important particulars, 
and that with the advance of molecular physics we may hope for a better 
understanding of what we now, for convenience, term “superficial vis¬ 
cosity” and “capillary attraction.” 
The author’s researches enabled him to confirm the following observa¬ 
tions of Mr. James C. Graham: 
1. They show that coarse sand can be floated on a current of far less 
velocity than 0.4545 miles per hour. (Note conclusion 1, above.) 
2. They indicate a possible explanation of the coarse particles of sand 
found in otherwise very fine deposits. 
(See Amer. Jour. Sci., Ill, Vol. XL, p. 476.) 
Professor Ch. Fred. Farit, M. A.—A Tribute. (Read Nov. 6, 1896.) 
Abstract: This paper, originally prepared for The American Geologist, 
is a tribute to the first professor of geology in Cornell University, by one 
of his students. 
