News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-08-12
GREAT SALT LAKE.
Difficulties of Taking n Header Into Its
Saline Waters.

did not anticipate any advantage in
either way, but lacked The moral
courage to turn away and confess l had
seen Great Salt Lake without taking a
bath in its celebrated waters. While
stood on the long platform celebrating
as to the style of debut most impressive
for tall, thin man, with bathing suit
b lit for one whose proportions were
latitudinal rather than longitudinal, an
ideal of beauty stepped from the next
dressing room, and, conscious of her
loneliness and its power of attraction,
stopped moment on the stairs to sur
vey the field before making the plunge.
Could she swim Like a mermaid, I'd
have wagered my last nickle. She was
from one of Chicago's suburbs, and had
cut the waters of Geneva Lake like one
of the finny tribe that makes their home
there; she had plunged into the surf at
Long Branch, and sporttd in the warm
water of the Japan current on the Pacific
coast. She was an expert swimmer, but
neither mermaids nor finny tribes in
Habit Great Salt Lake. 1t is a dead
sea, where nothing in the animal or
vegetable kingdom finds life. Its waters
are nearly one-fourth pure salt, and its
specific gravity tx times greater than
the ocean. 1t is as buoyant as a rubber
ball, but the beauty had not been told
all this and did not discover the true
nature of her surroundings until after
she had made the almost fatal plunge.
The water did not receive her form in a
loving embrace, but repulsed her ia
miiarity. Her body rebounded as
though it had str ok a great rubber
ball, her heels went into the air and
then she took a header, with eyes,
mouth and nostrils open wide 18th sur
prise. The water is like BRINE, and this
dive was terrible experience to the
mermaid of the east. She strangled,
and without prompt help would have
drowned. She said it was like swallow
ing a great gulp of lye.
Iprotited by the experience, and was
satisfied to wade until | found it re
quired no effort at all to float, which is
the only swimming attempted in Great
Salt Lake. The water is too heavy to
make any progress in swim ing. When
Paul Boyton was here two weeks ago he
found that with his rubber suit on he
could swim W tn great difficulty, since
the buoyancy of the water prevented
his body from sinking into it enough to
make a successful stroke. He met
with an experience somewhat similar to
the voung lady mentioned, and in a
little gale accideutly got some of the
salt water into his mouth and nostrils.
He strangled, and was rescued by two
Young men in boat. Leaving the
lake you find in your dressing-room d
large pail of fresh water for another
bath, without which you will present
an appearance not unlike that of Lots
wife after she disobeyed the command
not to look back. These baths are
really Intoxicating, and many invalids
are here for medical aid, and Salt Lake
physicians say there are not more in
MIGRATING baths anywhere in the coun-
try. The waters of the Dead Sea hold
more minerals in solution than do
those of the breat Salt Lake, but there
is nothing to equal this anywhere else,
1t is SIX times more salt than the ocean,
and, as said, tastes like brine; but it
look as clear as do the waters of Lake
Michigan, only a darker green when
viewed as great body.