The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-05
THE GREAT
SALT LAKE.
THE LEAD SEA OF AMERICA
BY p. DON AN.

The most wonderful feature OF all
this tour, the mlghtiest marvel of
ail-narvellOus Utah, and ocean OF
majestic mystery clad In beauty
divine, Is Great Salt Lake, the
American Dead Sea. Think of a
( lake from twenty-five hundred to
three-thousand square miles in
| area, lying Thousand miles inland,
at an altitude of four thousand, two
hundred and fifty feet above the
sea level, whose waters are six
times as salt as those Of the ocean;
and, while it has no outlet, four
large rivers pouring their ceaseless
floods of fresh water into it without
raising it's mysterious surface a
fraction of an inch, or even dimin-
ishing, so far as chemical analysis
can determine, Its indlscrlbable
saltness. Where does all the water
go? Where does all the salt, that
no streams can freshen, come from2
"a here are the vast saline maga-
zines from which it draws its ever
lasting supplies ? One may stand
upon its shores and ask a thousand
such questions, but no answer
comes from its mysterious depths,
in which nothing lives but death
and silence.
When, in February, 1916, twenty
thousand Mormons, under the
leadership OF Brigham Young, start
ed from Nauvoo, Illinois, on their
two thousandmlle pilgrimage
through the trackless wilderness of
the American West, they proclaim
ed themselves the modern Israel in
search OF the promised land. 1t
was Il strange tate, or destiny, or
Providence. that led them to
region so similar to the "Land of
Promise" of Israel of old. There,
the lake of Gennesaret, or sea of
Galilee, was fresh water and full of
fish. The Jordon River flowed out
of it and emptied into the Dead Sea,
which Is so salt and acrld that no
living thing is found in its waters.
Here, Provo OF Utah Lake is fresh
and sweet, and it's limpid waters
swarm with speckled trout and
other fish as savory as any that
strained the nets of Peter, James
anu John. Out of it flows the
Mormon River Jordan, and after
rambling for forty or fifty miles
through orchards and meadows
grain fields and gardens, pours its
silvery tide into Great Salt Lake,
the saltiest body of water on the
globe, surprising even It's Judean
counterpart by one and a half per
cent. In the Holy Land the Jordan
flows from north TO the south, while
the Utah Jordan flows from south
to north. Mount Nebo stood like a
giant sentinel overlooking the
ancient Gland flowing with milk and
honey" and here Mount Nebo,
lifting its crown of eternal snow
twelve thousand feet heavenward,
stands guard forever over a fairer
Canaan than Moses viewed, but
never entered.
Salt Lake was once as large as
Lake Huron, and was over a thou
sand feet deep. It's former benches
and the marks of it's olden wave
plashlng are as plain upon the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS as though traced
but yesterday. 1t IS now about a
hundred miles long, with an aver
age width of from twenty-five to-
thirty miles. 1t is from fifty to
sixty miles wide in some places,
aud its greatest depth is about
sixty feet. Its waters contain
eighteen per cent. Of solid matter,
mostly salt and soda, with small
proportions Of sulphur, magnesia,
calcium, chlorine, bromine, potas
sium lithia and boracic acid. The
Asiatic Dead Sea water contains
twenty.three per cent. OF solids,
including less salt and soda and
much more magnesia, calcium and
potassium than Salt Lake. Atlantic
ocean water holds but .5 per cent
of solid material, of which salt con-
stltutes 81 per cent. Hundreds of
thousands of tons of salt are made
by natural evaporation along the
shores of the lake, and at one place