The exhaustive experiments of Dr. Angus Smith
in Scotland, and the interesting reports of French examiners, have made
the scientific world familiar, not only qualitatively but
quantitatively, with the chemical nature of some rains, as well as with
their solid sedimentary contents.
Some years ago my attention was unpleasantly drawn to the fact that the
rain water in our use reacted for chlorine; and on finding this due
solely to the washing out from the atmosphere of suspended particles of
chloride of sodium or other chlorides or free chlorine, it appeared
interesting to determine the average amount of these salts in the rain
water of the sea coast. The results given in this paper refer to a
district on Staten Island, New York harbor, at a point four miles from
the ocean, slightly sheltered from the ocean's immediate influence by
the intervention of low ranges of hills. They were communicated to the
Natural Science Association of Staten Island, but the details of the
observations may prove of interest to the readers of the _Quarterly_,
and may there serve as a record more widely accessible.
It has long been recognized that the source of chlorine in rainfalls
near the sea was the sea itself, the amount of chlorides, putting aside
local exceptions arising from cities or manufactories, increasing with
the proximity of the point of observation to the ocean, and also showing
a marked relation to the exposure of the position chosen to violent
storms.
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