RUSSELL.] LAKES. 31 
than its companion which occasionally discharges into it. A sample 
of water from Harney Lake collected August 5, 1902, gave the follow- 
ing results on analysis: 
Analysis of the water of Harney Lake. Oregon. 
[Analyst. George Steiger.] 
Parts per 
million. 
Silica. SiO, 28. T 
Aluminum. Al None. 
Iron. Fg None. 
Magnesium. Mg 6. 8 
Calcium. Ca . . None. 
Sodium, N a :{.<j<>4.:> 
Potassium. K 192.8 
Carbon trioxide . CO s 2, 974. 7 
Hydrogen, H (required in formation of bicarbonate) 32.3 
Sulphuric anhydride, SOj ;?::.:; 
Chlorine, CI ..' 2,771.3 
Bromine, Br None. 
Iodine, I None. 
Boracic acid. B 4 O t 92.8 
Total ... 10,477. 2 
Specific gravity, 1.081. 
Note. — Reaction strongly alkaline. The computation shows that no free car- 
bonic acid is present above that required to form bicarbonates. 
Judging from the analysis given above, the most abundant salts 
contained in the lake waters are sodium chloride or common salt, 
sodium carbonate or bicarbonate, and sodium sulphate. Potash and 
borax are present, but as the total amount of saline matter in solution 
is only 1.04 per cent by weight, the lake waters can not be considered 
as being of commercial value. The low degree of salinity, and the 
absence of iodine and bromine, together with the low percentage of 
magnesia, furnish evidence that the lake as it exists at the present 
day is not the result of a long period of concentration by evaporation. 
The water of Malheur Lake is a weaker saline solution than its com- 
panion, as it is being freshened by overflow. While this renders it 
evident that it is of no economic importance, so far as. its contained 
salts are concerned, it is of interest in reference to the proposed use 
of its water for irrigation, as it is not too highly saline for that pur- 
pose. The manner in which Malheur Lake is contributing its salts 
to Harney Lake, by the process of occasional overflow described 
above, is also of much interest to geologists, as it illustrates one 
method by which a lake may be freshened, while at the same time a 
companion lake is growing more and more saline. a 
« The occasional outflow of water from Malheur Lake into Harney Lake, from which it escapes 
solely by evaporation, is a counterpart on a «mall scale of the process, now well advanced, by 
which the Caspian Sea is being relieved of a part of the saline matter it holds in solution. The 
Caspian is an inclosed lake, 181,000 square miles in area, the waters of which vary in chemical 
composition in different parts, but remote from the mouth of the Volga and other tributary 
streams contain 0.6494 per cent of total salts in solution. On the east side of the Caspian there is 
