ming
the pentoxide and sulphur dioxide.

_Columbium nitride_, Cb3N5 (?), is formed when dry ammonia gas is
passed into an ethereal solution of the chloride. A heavy white
precipitate, consisting of ammonium chloride and columbium nitride, is
thrown down, and the ammonium chloride is removed by washing it out
with hot water, when the columbium nitride remains as an amorphous
residue (Hall and Smith, _loc. cit._).

_Potassium fluoxy percolumbate_, K2CbO2F5.H2O, is prepared by
dissolving potassium columbium oxyfluoride in a 3% solution of
hydrogen peroxide. The solution turns yellow in colour, and, when
saturated, deposits a pasty mass of crystals. The salt separates from
solutions containing hydrofluoric acid in large plates, which are
greenish yellow in colour.

The atomic weight was determined by C. Marignac (_Ann. chim. et phys._
1866 (4), 8, p. 16) to be 94 from the analysis of potassium columbium
oxyfluoride, and the same value has been obtained by T. W. Richards
(_Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc._ 1898, 20, p. 543).

COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER [in Spanish CRISTOBAL COLON] (c. 1446, or perhaps
rather 1451,-1506) was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo and Suzanna
Fontanarossa, and was born at Genoa either about 1446 or in 1451, the
exact date being uncertain. His father was a wool-comber, of some small
means, who lived till 1498. According to the life of Columbus by his son
Ferdinand (a statement supported by Las Casas), young Christopher was
sent to the university of Pavia, where he devoted himself to astronomy,
geometry and cosmography. Yet, according to the admiral's own statement,
he became a sailor at fourteen. Evidently this statement, however,
cannot mean the abandonment of all other employment, for in 1470, 1472,
and 1473 we find him engaged in trade at Genoa, following the family
business of weaving, and (in 1473) residing at the neighbouring Savona.
In 1474-1475 he appears to have visited Chios, where he may have resided
some time, returning to Genoa perhaps early in 1476. Thence he seems to
have again set out on a voyage in the summer of 1476, perhaps bound for
England; on the 13th of August 1476, the four Genoese vessels he
accompanied were attacked off Cape St Vincent by a privateer, one
Guillaume de Casenove, surnamed Coullon or Colombo ("Columbus"); two of
the four ships escaped, with Christopher, to Lisbon. In December 1476,
the latter resumed their voyage to England, prob