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Show LOOKS LIKE II SOURCE OF POTASH Lakes in Western Nebraska May Provide Valuable Sails for- Commerce. GOVERNMENT INTEREST Engineers of Geological Survey Sur-vey Seem Rather Confident of New Finds. Considerable intcrc.it lias been :iroucd i In the discovery of soluble potash aalts in certain lakes In western Nebraska, The report of tholr discovery, together i with samples of the depoHlte, first came to the geological survey from Carl Modc-sltt, Modc-sltt, who has been interested in the possibility pos-sibility of developing tho depoulta on a commercial basis. Ono Jaka was visited by II. B. Dole of tho geological eurvoy, who collected from tho deposit samples whoso potash content has been deter-1 mined. aiany shallow lacs, fifty to flvo hundred hun-dred acres In extent, occupy depressions among the Band hills of western Nebraska Ne-braska At tho ordinary alago of water most of the lakes havo no surface outlet and tome of thorn am apparently underpin under-pin by imporvlous strata, which prevent the- escape of tho water by seepage. As a result, thoy form shallow evaporating pans in which largo duantltlcs or tho alkaline or saline material of thn tributary tribu-tary drainage water accumulate and become be-come more or less concentrated. Location of Field. The lake vjslted by Sir. Dole, known as Jesse lake, situated In township 2 north, range IG west, covers about -100 acres and is ono of tho largest of these bodies of water. It varies in depth from thirty inchcH to dryness, according to tho rainfall rain-fall and season. Tho laud on tho northwest north-west sido of the lako is awampy and the water there Is not so concentrated in salts, as pofslbly l his Is where seepage enters- When the lako waa examined In May a strip of the lake shore about 100 feet wide was exposed and tho water In tho lake was about a foot deep. The shore Is brownish-blade sticky mud devoid de-void of vegetation. The lako is entirely surrounded by typical sand hills, arid probably a rise of four or fivo feet in tho water level would be necessary to effect surfaco run-off. A partial analysis was made of several samples of water collected at Jesse lake. The results of these analyses urc giv;n below. Noy. " and' :j represent water from the lake and No. I Is a crust from the top of a pit dug on the shore of Iho lake. No. a is mud from a depth of twenty Inches on tho shore of the lake and No. fi Is from a depth of ten Inches. The determinations de-terminations -wore made by A. It. IMcin at the co-opcrallvo laboratory for potash tests, Mackay School of Mines. Kcno. Nov.. who reports that the salts consist mainly of carbonates but contain also chlorides and sulphates. Analysis of Samples. Potash determinations on samples from Jesse lake, Nebraska: g&55- " 5?Og ' ..bo try . --2. " - : Sgg :S.i " . epB zr ' '. H. No. 2 L'.Ifj 20.01 No. .'! 3.!M oO.OH No. I 47.72 21.07, No. r, I .o2 Not determined. No. i; 2. OS Not determined. Theso results, so far as they go. confirm con-firm those of more compluto analyses that have been made by private chemists. The concentration of tho total salts In tho water Is about per cent, nearly the samo as ordinary sea water, though ttie composition of the salts is of course widely wide-ly different. The concentration doubtless varies with the stage of the lake. Experiments are now being conducted on the ground in the expectation of marketing mar-keting cither the crude salts or of extracting ex-tracting the potash and other byproducts. by-products. The extraction problems tbat .must be solved are similar lo those met at Scarles lake in California. Prospects Bright. As similar conditions may he found in other localities hi western Nebraska, north or south of .Jesse lake, and possibly possi-bly also in eastern Colorado. IDc geological geo-logical survey may make a Held exploration explora-tion of the territory for the study of these deposits. At present, howovcr. work will be confined to examination of a limited number of samples of water from the alkali lakes that may be selected se-lected from those submitted. If residents of this district will send samples of tnese waters to the director, United States geological survey. Washington. D. C, stating the exact location (including section, sec-tion, township and range) and the name, if any. of ' the lake from which the sample sam-ple was obtained, these will be tested for tholr content of total salts, free of charge, and If qualitative examination shows further tests to bo advisable they will also be examined for potash. Water samples can bo submitted by mail In six or eight-ounce hottles contained in mailable cases such as arc approved by the postofflco department. San Francisco Oil Stocks, James A. Pollock & Co-, bankers and brokers, furnish the following, received over their private wiro yesterday after-noun: after-noun: I Bid. lAskod. Caribou $ .1)0 ? Clarnniont GO McKlttrlck .0!) New Pcnn'a 5n Sauer "Dough no S W 15 IS Turner SO Wlv Oil , 1.071 Metal Market. The metal quotations for Friday, posted post-ed by IcCornlck Sz Co., were a follows: Silver, C3c; lead, $-i,7i; copper, 517.22. Mining Notes. James A, Pollock Is In the cltv from California. A. L. Jacobs leaves today to spend the holidays In California. A car of fifty tons of ore Is on the way from the Cuba mine, which Is due at the local smelters any day. Thla car will run 70 per cent lead. Tho directors of the Utah Copper and Nevada Consolidated companies havo postponed their quarterly meetings until next Monday, at which time the dlvl-1 dends will be determined. |
