The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1883-06-29

In these sweltering days when the mercu.
ry tries the atheletic business and uses the
graduated scales of the Thermometers to crawl
up and out through the top of the tube. one
can hardly think of anything more refresh
ing than
GREAT SALT LAKE.
IL Is 10 miles wide and 90 miles long and
has an average depth Of about 60 feet, though
no systematic and complete soundings have
ever been made. In some places the line has
never reached Bottom, but in other vast
areas 1t is only few feet deep. When Brig
ham Young first brought the Mormons there
cattle could be driven across the arm of the
lake, seveval miles, to Church Island; but the
waters have risen several feet since then and
although they have a. ain receded somewhat,
the shadows are yet too deep to ford. This
rise and fall is one of the mysteries of this
mysterious inland sea-a lake that with
three considerable fresh water rivers flow
ing into 1t is the safest water on the globe,
and with no visible outlet Is neither materi-
ally affected in height by the heaviest fresh
cts or the most protracted drOuth. Average
ocean water contains five to seven per cent
salt; Salt Lake carries an average of -
per cent. salt. What causes this extreme
saltness and what becomes of the inflow of
water has long perplexed the scientists. En-
periments with salt wells in Virginia appear
to demonstrate that water running without
much violence over Salt rocks dissolves but
little of the salt, but that subjected to
strong action of the water is liberated rapid
Y t,ak a 10 hnl
of salt rock and is subject to very violent
storms. This is held to account for the large
percentage of salt held in solution, while the
great dryness of the air so far inland is be-
lieved TO evaporate water so much more RI
pidly than the more humid atmosphere of
the coast, that the absorption of the Bear,
Weber and Jordan rivers and thair DISPOSE
ton by evaporation is accounted for. This
is the opinion entertained by DIR. Fowler,
formerly of Virginia City and Radersburg,
and now one of the prominent medical prac-
titioners of the sanity city. By-the-way,
speaking of this, DR.. Fowler was the first
person who had n bathing suit made and
used 1t in Salt Lake. The idea took. Piers,
bathing houses and pavIlions have been
built at Black Rock and Garfield, % miles
from the city; trains on the Utah & Nevada
railroad run there twice a day, carrying pas
sengers the round trip for 80 cents, and it is
not unusual for a thousand people to run
down there of day and evening and enjoy
the luxury of tumble in the brine. The
beach is very fine at Garfield with bar run
ming out 200 yards or more on which the wa
ter does not exceed four or five feet in depth
and the sands as white and soft almost as
snow. After hot day in the city nothing
finer can be imagined than run to Gar
field, forty minutes bath, luncheon at
the pavilion, and then fifty minutes run to
the city at dusk across the breezy moors.
The diversion is becoming more popular
every year and Jew, Gentle, Saint and Sim
ner, in promiscuous multitudes, during the
sum mer months rush to the embraces Of the
lake that its saline surf may
"Wash all their sins away"