Arizona silver belt., 1893-06-24
WHY THE SEA IS SALT
IT RECEIVES MINERAL SALT FROM
 LAND AND LOSES NONE.

The Process of Evaporation Releases Water
 from the Oceans. but the salt Remains.
 Therefore tho Sea Is Continually Crow
 Ing More Salty.
 Why is sea water salt? is a question
 that has been regarded as mystery
 and has given rise to some curious specu- iations, but q little consideration on the
 subject must, think, satisfy us all that 1t would be very wonderful, quite in comprehensible, if the waters of the
 ocean were otherwise than salt as they
 are.
 The following explanation was first
 suggested to myself many years ago
 when receiving my first lessons in prac-
 tical chemical analysis. The problem then to be solved was the separation of
 the bases dissolved in water by precip- ltating them one by one in solid con dition. tiltrating away the water from the first, then from this filtrate precip- itating the second, and so on until all were separated or accounted for
 But in doing this there was one baso that was always left to the last on ac- count of the difficulty of combining it with any acid that would form solid compound-a difficulty so great that it's presence was determined by a different method, This base is soda, the predoIni- hating base of sea salt. where it is com bined with hydrochloric acid. Not only is sodl the most soluble of all the mineral bases but the mineral acid with which it is combined forms q remarkably solu- ble se ries of salts--the chlorides. Thus the primary fact concerning the salinity of sea water is that it has selected from among the stable chemical elements the two which form the most soluble com poun Is. Among the earthly bases is one whic is exceptionally soluble-that is mag .esia a-and this stands next to soda in its abundance in sea water.
 Modern research has shown that the oceai contains in solution nearly every elenH'nt that exists upon the earth, and that .hese elements exist in the water in proprtions nearly corresponding to the mean solubility of their various com pounls Thus gold and silver and most Of the other heavy metals exist there. SOnn'nstadt found about fourteeii grain' of gold to the ton of seawater, or q dollars worth in less than two tons. As th,l ocean covers all the lower valleys of tho earth, it receives all the drainage from the whole of the exposed land. This drainage is the rainwater that has fallen upon this exposed surface. has flowed down it's superficial slopes or has sunk into porous land and descended upderl round In either case the water must dissolve and carry with it any sol able matter that it meets. the quantity of solid matter which is thus appropri- atgd being proPortionate to is solubiliiy and the extent of it's exposure to the solvent Rain when it falls upon the earth is distilled water. nearly pure tits small impurities being what 1t obtains from the air, but river water when 1t reaches the ocean contains measurable quantities of dissolved mineral and veg etable matter These small contribu- dons are ever pouring in and ever accu- mulating This continual addition of dissolved mineral salts without any cor responding abstraction by evaporation has been going on ever since the surface of The earth consisted of lnnd and water
 An examination of the compost ioa of other bodies of water which, like the ocean. receive rivers and riyulets and have no other ontlot than that atforlcl by evaporation, confirms this view Al of these are more or less saline. many of i them more so than the ocean itself. On the great tableland of Asia. "the roof of i the world, there is 8 multitude of small ! lakes which receive the waters of rivers and riyulets of that region and have no i outlet to the ocean. On map they ap- ! pear like bags, with string attached, | the bag being the lake and the string the 1 river All these lakes are saline, filauy | o. them excessively so. simply because . they are ever receiving river water of i slishl salinity and eyef giving off vapor which has no salinity at all. There is no wash through these lakes, as in the great 1 American lakes or these of Constance, Geneva, etc
 The sea of Aral and the Caspian are lakes without any other outlet than evaporation, and they are saline accord | iBgly The Dead sea, which receives the Jordan at one end and multitude of minor rivers and rivulets at the other end and sides. is a noted example of ex- treme salinity, If is. as everybody knows. sea or lako of brine. The to- tal area of land training into the great ocean does not exceed one-fourth of its own area while the Dead sea receives the drainage and soluble matter of an area above twenty times greater than its own, and thus it fuliills the demand 5F the above stated theory by having far greater saliuity than has the great ocean.
 According to this view the salinity of the ocean must be steadily though very slowly increasing, and there must be slowly proceeding a corresponding adap- tation of evolution among the inh;lbit- ants both animal and vegetable. The study of this subject and the effect which the increasing salinity of the past must have had upon the progressive of organic life displayed by fossils is. think, worthy of more at- tention than it has hitherto received from paleontologists. w. Mattien Will liains in Science.
 Her Point of View.
 4 charming lady of the old school who "a il member of ono of thp hist0,.ipal fam,