The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-08-27
Great Salt Lake.

Salt making has beer 4 business of
great importance on the banks of the
lake since the occupation OF this terri
tory by the MormonS. The water is 50
dcnscly saline that it is impossible for
Il body to find bottom.
1t is Il capital place to acquire the art
of swimming with perfect safety. In
former times three barrels of water left
to cyapOratc would produce Il barrel
of salt; but the freShcning within the
last twenty years has so weakened it
that 10Y four barrels of it are required
to obtain that quantity. e 1t has become
fresh therefore in Il proportion of some
what more than II per cent. yearly.
Hence it follows that in less
one hundred years the name of Great
Salt Lake should be changed; for by
this time it will, like MormoniSm, be
cleared of all its impurities. | have
previously noticed the regular water
lines, called benches, which are so dis
tinctly defined on all the mountain
ranges surrounding these various val
lcvs, and which afford such unmistak-
able evidence that in former DAYS they
incloScd vast inland ScaS. The deep
alkaline soil of the bottoms has lcd to
the SuppoSition that these seas were of
salt water, and that all Of them except
ing this haze been completely cyapori-
ted, salt Lake being the sole survivor,
and that destined to dwindIc To II pud-
die and then to dry up forever. But
the last part of this theory is ncgatiyed
by the evident intention of the lake to
assume somewhat of its original pro-
portions; while it is becoming frc>hrr,
it is growing larger. With
in the twcnty->cvcn years that
the country around it has been
settled, it has ~cncroachad all along its
low banks nearly Il mile upon the land
and dcrpcnrd five feet. Several fine
farms are now permanently under Wa
ter, and the road on which we travelled
has been moved far inward to accom-
modatc is a~mrrS>ivrnr>>. At the same
time that this change is going on, at
mosphcric CAUSES for Il part of il are APP
norrut The clim,tr !, brcomiur more
mild, although it is still excessively dry.
But each succrrdinr season bringS a
greater rainfall. This has doublrd with
in twelve years.
III II = H. , ~ A.
north and Jordan ON the south. beside,
some small r~iyulctS that find their WAY
into il. Every wear their volumes IN
crease, and contribute to the filling up
of the Great basin into which they pour
themselves. Notwithstanding this. the
increase of the lake cannot be thu ac-
counted for. rs they are still but inSi@-
n%iticamt streams. 1t must be true that
new frcSh-watcr fountains have burst
ont from the bottom and are the chief
causes of the increase. 4 like phrnOmc-
non has produced the lake near which
we aftcrward PASSED at Stockton, where
on the ground cncampcd upon bv Con-
nor'S army there is now a BODY of water
two miles square and of considerable
depth. If these changes 90 on rs they
have commenced, the Zion of Brigham
Young will ere long become completely
submerged. His enemies will say that a
second flood has been commissioned to
overflow the desert that he has reclaim
ed, because If the sins of the people,
and that like Sodom and GomOrrah
these modern cities IF the plain have