36 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
M. Dieulafait believes these hypotheses are wholly gratui- 
tous, and that ‘‘the salts held in solution in the waters of the 
seas, the salts existing in solid masses in the strata of our globe 
and those which furnish the mineral constituents of saline 
waters have a common origin, and that this origin is exterior 
to the first strata that were formed in the consolidation of the 
earth.’’ | 
According to the nebular hypothesis, when the temperature 
of the mass outside the cooling globe was from 2000 to 2500 
degrees C., then chlorin, sulfur, as well as hydrogen and oxy- 
gen, would not be united, as all bodies would be dissociated at 
this high temperature. As the mass cooled, only certain bodies 
could be formed, and another set of substances would be formed 
at another temperature. Thussodium chlorid would have been 
condensed at a high temperature, but magnesium chlorid could 
not have been formed till the temperature was much lower; in 
fact, nearly as low as that of boiling water, as it is readily disso- 
ciated at that temperature. Metals combined with sulfur and 
chlorin; that is, those metals existing on the earliest crust of 
the earth, such as lithium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and 
calcium, and those happened to be the chief constituents of sea 
water. Itseems.to be well established from the earliest evidence 
of life that is found that the earlier seas did not differ materially 
in their composition, though they differed in a few constituents, 
from the ocean as it is at the present time. The simplest way 
of explaining the origin of these saline formations, then, would 
be to assume that they were the result of the evaporation of sa- 
line lakes accidently isolated from the ocean. 
Experiments on saline waters have proven that the following 
deposits would take place upon the spontaneous evaporation of 
the water : 
Precipitate. 
Till 80 per cent. of original volume is evaporated... CaCOs, MgCOs, Fe (OH)s. 
Be more is evaporated................ Gypsum (CaSO.+2H20). 
oe os AIRES ARE ec th Site ole No precipitation. 
BLS eG CN LL en Sodium chlorid (NaCl). 
es Bs Ges ARLE ACC RON CAs NaCl+MgS0O.. 
Com il! 06 GC CS Raut meaner aC ae ast Carnellite (KCl, MgCls). 
Remaining 2 per cent. mostly...................... Magnesium chlorid (MgCl). 
66 
bdo or bh) © 
