In the following analysis this coaly residue was treated with strong nitric acid for a few minutes until the black color disappeared and an attempt was made to collect the escaping gas. As, however, abundant red fumes appeared, it was concluded that the gas came from the acid and it was allowed to escape. The great deficiency in the following analysis indicates, however, that a gaseous constituent may have been set free from the substance. The heavy residue was separated by decantation and divided with the magnet into rhabdite and a nonmagnetic portion consisting of rust particles and grains of sand evidently from laboratory dust, or dirt on the original rust covered surface of the meteorite. Nothing of interest that could be referred to the meteorite could be observed in it under the microscope. The light, flocculent residue collected on an asbestus filter was burned and determined as carbon by collecting and weighing the gas given off. The other constituents were determined in the nitric acid solution. The numbers given below can only be considered as approximative, as the separation by decantation may not have been complete and there may have been some loss in the mechanical separation of the heavy residue. Still after making all due allowances for defects in the process of analysis, the deficiencies are too great to be accounted for in this manner and must be attributed to one or more undetermined constituents, possibly gaseous. The result obtained is as follows: The phosphorus can probably be referred to a partial solution of the rhabdite and the traces of chromium may perhaps indicate an admixture of daubréelite. The whitish flocculent substance giving carbonic acid on burning is very extraordinary, though something similar seems to have been observed by Tschermak (as quoted by Flight, History of Meteorites, p. 163,) in the Goalpara meteorite. As a similar residue with the same aspect and behavior with acids and with a strong nickel reaction in the borax bead was obtained in small quantities from Bendegó, efforts are now being made to obtain a sufficient amount for a more careful study of this curious substance. The non-magnetic residue of the above analysis contained. all the non-soluble and non-magnetic residue of the original mass treated, together with all the dirt accumulated throughout the long process of treatment. Nothing of interest that could not be referred with almost absolute certainty to the later source could be observed in it in a careful microscopic examination. Evidently the mass treated did not contain diamonds or anything remotely suggestive of them. ART. X.-B-Bromvalerianic Acid, CII-CH2-CHВrCH-COOH; by JOHN G. SPENZER, Cleveland, O. THE first step in the preparation of 3-bromvalerianic acid. was the preparation of propylideneacetic acids by the action of hot, caustic soda solution on ethylidene propionic acid. To one volume of pure propylideneacetic acid contained in a small cylinder having a well ground stopper, 13 volumes of hydrobromic acid saturated at 0° C. were added, on shaking a clear solution resulted, it was allowed to remain quietly for 24 hours at the ordinary temperature; the monobromide had now risen to the surface of the hydrobromic acid as a light brown colored layer. The cylinder was now vigorously shaken from time to time, to bring any unaltered propylideneacetic acid, which might be dissolved in the monobromide into intimate. contact with the hydrobromic acid. After this occasional shaking had been continued for four or five days, the contents of the cylinder formed two distinct layers, the reaction was ended and all the propylideneacetic acid had been quantitatively changed into 3-bromvalerianic acid. The cylinder still stoppered was now placed in ice water, to cause the new acid. to solidify, this, however, did not occur; it was then placed in a freezing mixture of ice and salt, and on agitating slightly the monobromide at once congealed to a solid mass of fine needles lying on the surface of the hydrobromic acid. The cylinder stood for 15 hours at a temperature of 15° C.; then the crystalline cake was broken through with a glass rod, distributed through the hydrobromic acid and brought into a platinum cone, where it was allowed to dry, being washed with small successive portions of ice water, in order to remove the greater part of the mineral acid. The contents of the cone were now brought on to a watch glass and placed in a vacuum over sulphuric acid and caustic potassa; a dry sandy, white substance resulted, which was powdered and recrystallized out of petroleum ether. So produced, the 3-bromvalerianic acid is, after drying, perfectly pure, as the analysis proves : 0.233 g. of the substance dried in a vacuum gave 0·2410 Ag Br. Calculated for C, H, BrO2. 44.20% Br. Found. 44.20% Br. B-bromvalerianic acid melts at 59° to 60° C., the melting point not altering in the least by repeated determinations on the same sample. It dissolves readily in ether, chloroform, carbon disulphide, less easily in benzene and petroleum ether, and is almost insoluble in water of 0° C. If the cold, saturated solution of the monobromide in petroleum ether be allowed to evaporate spontaneously it crystallizes out in beautiful, colorless, 8-sided prisms. The crystals set up after Naumann's System give the following crystallographic measurements: B-Bromvalerianic acid. Crystal system: Monosymmetric. á: bé 1·4688: 1: 0·4900 Observed forms: m = {110}∞ P, a = {100} ∞ P∞, b= {010} ∞P∞,r={011}P∞, d = { 101}+P∞, e = {101} - P∞ The crystals are mostly 2 to 5mm long by 1 to 2mm wide and possess a valerianic acid like odor. Some crystals are without {101}+P∞, as also {100} Poo, while {101}-P was only observed once. The faces were almost always smooth and polished giving excellent reflections. The following angles were measured and calculated: The plane of the optical axes stands at right angles to the clinopinacoid and is only slightly inclined towards the orthopinacoid. A cleavage could not be found. Obtuse bisectrix = axis. 63 33 63 28 31 8 31 45 80 48 ART. XI.-The Inner Gorge Terraces of the Upper Ohio and Beaver Rivers; by R. R. HICE. In all discussions of the terraces of the upper Ohio region a sharp distinction has been drawn between the Upper Rock benches, and the terraces lining the inner gorge, first, in the character of the alluvium connected with each and, secondly, in their structure. The alluvium of the Upper Rock bench on the Beaver river (below the glacial boundary), consists of clayey deposits, with occasional pockets of gravel. On the Ohio, above the mouth of the Beaver, the proportion of gravel is greater, but below that stream the deposits partake more of the clayey character, reaching however a much greater thickness than is generally found on the Beaver. The alluvium of the inner terraces, on the contrary, is almost entirely gravel, with a large proportion of metamorphic material, with its immediate origin in the morainic deposits a few miles northward. It cannot be mistaken for, or confused with, the gravels found on the higher benches, from which it is distinguished (1) in the character of its deposition, (2) in the proportion of metamorphic material, (3) in the shape of the pebbles, (4) in the apparent greater age of the higher gravels. These distinctions when once noted are not easily mistaken, and taken together form a certain guide, irrespective of difference in elevation above present stream level. The distinguishing feature of the upper terraces is the ever present rock shelf. Prof. White in speaking of the most prominent of the upper terraces says a rocky escarpment leads up to at every point where it is seen.* In point of fact, the true character of the upper terraces has been generally recognized, in that they represent fragments of the bed of the stream, left in the original excavation of the valley. They are thus the earliest records we have of the cutting stream, and evidence has been heretofore presented, both of a general and local character, to show that the original stream flowed to the north, and has been reversed. On the other hand, it has been assumed heretofore, that the distinctive mark of the terraces of the inner gorge was the absence of any included rock shelf. This assumption presupposes that the inner gorge differs from the upper, wider, and older valley, in its freedom from any remnantal benches, and from their supposed absence it has, in turn, been assumed that the cutting of the inner gorge was a short, quick, continuous *For principal papers relating to subject, see list at close of paper. action; that, when renewed activity had been given the cutting stream, excavation proceeded without break, until the bottom of the now buried channel was reached. A more careful examination of the inner terraces shows, however, that to some extent at least, the prevailing notions regarding them are not correct. There are points, it is true, where the current descriptions seem, in some features, entirely accurate, but it is believed that sufficient is now known to show that the broad generalizations that have been drawn are incorrect. Passing up the Ohio from the Pennsylvania and Ohio State line, the inner terraces alternate from side to side of the stream, and no appearance of an included rock shelf has been noticed until Raccoon Creek is reached. On this part of the Ohio the inner terraces, so far as observed, are made up bodily of alluvium, the gravel appearing to extend from the top of the terrace to the bottom of the now buried channel. At the mouth of Raccoon Creek we find the alluvium reaching to the height of the "third" terrace (about 120 feet above river level) and along the river front it presents an unbroken escarpment of gravel and bowlders. Raccoon Creek, which is quite a rapid stream, shows, however, that the apparent uniformity in terrace material is a mistake. As this stream emerges from the narrow valley it has cut for itself, into the trough of the Ohio, we find it does not follow its natural course, but, turning abruptly up the larger stream, it has cut for itself a narrow cañon through a rather massive sandstone. The direct course of the stream we find cut off by the alluvial deposit, and evidently the old channel of the creek, which was cut when the now buried channel of the Ohio was being excavated, was, on the coming of the alluvium, filled to the terrace level, and when the Ohio re-excavated its channel in the gravel, Raccoon Creek was turned in its new course and has cut the channel we now find, which is in no way comparable in size with the valley cut for many miles by the same stream. How far the rock here underlying the terrace extends we have yet no means of knowing. Crossing the Ohio to the next fragment of inner terrace we come to the point where the inner terraces have their greatest development on the upper Ohio. On both sides of the Beaver river the terraces attain a height of one hundred and twenty feet above stream level. On the lower, or Beaver, side it extends from a point about two miles below the mouth of the Beaver up the Ohio, and thence up the Beaver for about one mile. Where Two Mile run cuts across the terrace a modern channel has been cut through the ferriferous limestone, which here underlies the terrace in a broad, flat bench. How far this rock bench extends cannot be told. It at no point shows on AM. JOUR. SCI.-THIRD SERIES, VOL. XLIX, No. 290.-FEB., 1895. |