Notes on the Chemical Composition of some Oceanic Deposits

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Abstract
When describing in this Journal the raised and consolidated deep-sea oozes which occur in the island of Barbados, we experienced great difficulty in comparing our analyses of these deposits with those made by Dr. Brazier of the corresponding recent oozes. This was especially the case with the ‘red clays’ and, in a less degree, with the other deposits. In the paper above referred to we remarked that ‘if the Challenger samples of red clay which contained only small amounts of calcium carbonate and the samples of the Barbados argillaceous earths had been analysed by similar methods, a close resemblance in composition would have been found in them; and the differences would have been such only as would arise from the action of percolating water containing organic acids upon the Barbados deposits, from which the calcium carbonate and the iron peroxide present in a limonitic form would be leached out.’ We know that the analyses published in the ‘Challenger’ Report on Deep-Sea Deposits were made before Dr. Murray was placed in charge of the ‘Challenger’ Office and that he was fully aware of their shortcomings, as testified by his discussions of them in different parts of the Report. It is especially to be regretted that the analyses of the ‘red clays’ were not made on a more satisfactory plan, for the method employed by Dr. Brazier was not calculated to bring out the real mineralogical composition of these deposits. Dr. Murray very kindly placed at our disposal a typical sample of

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