Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-10
THE HERALD LAKE.
AGENT CONE BELIEVES THAT 1T
HAS COME TO STAY.
Annually by the Flooding of the Salt
Fields-Eggs Will Boil in the Lake.

Today we had the pleasure of short
living at Salton for long time as agent
of the Southern Pacific, and also of the
salt company, says the Riverside Press.
During the conversation we learned
much of interest about that remarkable
region and the transformation now 60
ing on.
1t has been stated in print that the
manner OF gathering the salt was to dig
trenches which would fill with water at
night and evaporate during the intense
heat of the day, and that the salt was in
the nature of a deposit left in the
trenches. This is not the method. A
certain amount of water is necessary
for the successful operation of the
works, as it brings the salt to the sur
lace, when it is then raked up in piles
about two feet high and allowed to
drain, after which it is put in wheel
barrows and taken to the works for
grinding.
A little water standing on the surface
of the plain will cause good-sized cones
of pure salt to form, and the action of
raking them through the water washes
off all impurities, so that when ground
up the result is absolutely pure table
salt. Mr.. Gone says that it seemed
something like the way the children of
Israel did when in the wilderness gath
ering manna-the salt was there, and all
they had to do was to rake it up and
cart it off.
That industry is now utterly de-
stroyed, and the Southern Pacific and
the salt company will lose large rev.
enue. The freight receipts on salt alone
amounted to $25, 900 year. and as the
railroad company has to haul empty
cars past there every day it was almost
pure gain. Before the water came in
the desert looked good deal like a
western prairie in the fall after light
snow-level and bare, and encrusted
with the flakes OF salt-a wintry-looking
scene, but as hot as in the tropics.
The average depth OF water is now
about four feet, and is stationary, the
inflow nearly equaling the evaporation.
Directly across the lake from Salton the
distance is eight miles, in some places it
is ten miles wide, and is about forty
miles long. Thus it will be seen what
vast volume of water has poured into
| the basin.
AS Uu6 OUlOTduO TlN6T 10 HOW db lIo
lowest stage, and the inflow equals the
evaporation, it is reasonable to suppose
that the lake has come to stay. The
and deep, and as the Salton basin is so
much below the river bed, when high
water comes again one can easily per-
ceive what the result will be.
Mr.. Cone had quite number of pho
| he ith h M of uiaWc of tho co II
works and on the lake. In looking at
them it was hard to realize that a short
time ago that large eXpanse of water was
sandy waste.
1t is very warm at Salton, the usual
temperature during the hottest part Of
the day being 11S degrees. A ther-
mometer hanging on the side of the
building where the rays of the sun fall
upon it registers 145 degrees.
The water near the shore is so hot
that Mr. Cone says it would cook eggs
so hot that one cannot bathe in it. One
day when out boating, he got out neal
the shore where the water was too shal.
! low to use the oars, and pushed the boat
in. He said he fully expected the skin
on his feet would be scalded so badly il
would all come off, but only few blis-
ters was the result.
The water in the lake is ten per cent
salt, which shows what deposit there
is in the basin, for all the water that
flows in is pure and fresh.
If we are to have a permanent lake to
the east of us, we may expect it to have
some effect on our climate, and it may be
the causa of more rains. Whether that
will be an advantage or not remains to
be seen. There must necessarily be an
enormous amount OF water going up
from such large body of water in the
intense heat of that sultry region. II
will have TO come down somewhere, and
should it come here during our raisin-
curing season the result would be very
disastrous.
To the Public.