Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-07-02
an INLAND LAKE.
Peculiar Phenomenon in the
Colorado Desert.
WATERFLooDIlTG THBsANDY PLAIN

A Great Thing for Salt Men if the Inun
dation Subsidies, and a Great Thing fU1
the Climate if II Doesn't-Tradition OF
the Indians to Former Floods
Source of the Water a Iystery-Possi
bility of a Great Geological Change.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 2-California has
added another to her long list of marvels.
What was viewed with but slight, though
wonderful curiosity on Saturday last, has
become one of the most wonderful natural
phenomena recorded in modern history
The lake at Salton, the lowest point of the
Colorado desert, which began to form
about one week ago, is now vast body Of
brackish water, thirty miles long by
twelve miles wide and is fed by stream
which flows at a speed of four and one
half miles an hour. j. H. Gilmour, a
young Anglo Indian, who has spent six
months at Sslton experimenting with the
culture of the poppy, returned from Salton
yesterday.
Thought There Was Water Out There.
He described his experience as follows:
TUESDAY of last week l made the remark.
I am shot If that does not look like water
out there 1t was said in joke and accept
Ell as such. On the day previous | had
left the marsh at 3 in the afternoon. There
had seen the same great glistening white
patch TO the east and west and south The
next morning took che track velocipede
and went westward and met the Indians
returning. They told me there was water
on the marsh.
And He Was Very Correct.
Il went forward. From the southeast
came strong and steady wave of water,
bringing on it's basom little saucers Of
salt, which when they grew too heavy sank
TO the bottom. The marsh was then three
inches under water, and the salt was pill
ing up in vast quantities along the rail
way track. The mex day the waters rose
several inches and came closer. The wind
was still fresh from the southeast, and tie
water was being thrown at a terrific rate
toward Nortmere. The lake was then es-
atad to be eight miles wide and thirty
miles long.
Bonanza for Salt Men.
Saturday the water was thirteen inches
in depth, and within few hundred yards
of the locomotive house. Sunday after
noon it was fifteen inches in depth, but
not nearer the mill. The reason of this is
that there is a sharp>tnrn to the mill, and
the water will havs to beat least four feet
high before the mill can be damaged, and
eight feet before the track cap be swamped.
Should this vast body of water MT receive
further supply from the Colorado river,
the evaporation is so rapid that the great
salt lake would soon disappear, and leave
behind it but an enormous pile Of salt"
Nothing like 1t Ever Seen Before.
There has never been anything like this
amount of water at Salton during the
time of the white man, but the Indians
have a tradition that many long years ago
the water rose in a similar manner and
drowned large numbers of their forefa-
theirs. This whole region was once under
water, and the water line can be seen high
up ON the mountain side. Within the
memory of man, however, it has been en-
tirely dry, with the exception of a little
pool of brackish water at the salt works
The source OF the mysterious inflow of
water remains mystery, although the
general belief is still that it comes from a
break in the banks OF, the Colorado river
near Yuma.
III should Be Permanent.
Scientists here are discussing the effect
upon the climate of southern California
should the food be permanent. The 1e-
suit would certainly be beneficial, making
it more like that of Lower California
which lies betwee the gulf and the ocean.
There would be no more santanas from
the desert, thus making the climate st1l
more equable even than it now is. The
peninsula would be extended northward
to the latitude Of Orange county. 1t is
possible that one of the greatest geolog-
ical changes of the age is going on.
Michigan Legislature.