The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-13
ON THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
YOU CAN'T DROWN IN 1T, But YOU
CAN DO WORSE.
Many Times More salty Than the
Ocean, and Not Much Behind Lots
Wife-SOme Mysteries OF the Amer
ican Dend Sen.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Great Salt Lake IS seventy pliles
long and fifty miles across in its widest
part. 1t has an area of 2,oOO square miles.
and of late years its greatest depth has
not exceeded forty feet. In early summer
this remarkable sea is two feet higher than
it is in the fall. owing to the melted snow
brought down by its three largest tributa-
ries. the Bear. Weber, and Jordan rivers.
This influx of fresh streams does not ap-
probably lessen the sadness Of the main
body of water, though its proportion of
solid matter varies with the oscillations OF
its surface. being naturally greatest when
the lake is shallOwest. Those engaged in
the manufacture of salt here say that 1t
takes six gallons of water TO make one
gallon of salt. If any one doubts that the
water of the lake is taken up by evapora-
ton. and leans to the hypothesis Of an I'M
foreground outlet, let him expose TO the
sun and wind of this high altitude yes
sci of this same water and see in what an
incredibly short time the liquid is reduced
to solids.
The Salt Lake shores are mostly gray
flats of indescribable barrenness. The
often beautifully lowered with a delicate
frostwork of salt spray. On the northern
slopes and down the western border there
are numberless springs running pure brine.
But stranger than this is the fact that
in several places fresh water gushes out of
the sand on East Antelope within fifteen
feet of the trimming lake basin. The one
perfect beach is at Garfield, dozen or so
miles west of where the Jordan river Is
crossed and at the feet of the Oquirrhs-a
grandly picturesque range, in whose clefts
throughout the summer the snow lies like
fallen clouds. The first bathing in the lake
was done at Black Rock, on Garfield
beach, which has been a resort fer pic
nickers since the early ffties.
The various groups of islands in this
Dead sea of the western continent are
fragments of mountain chains gracefully
strung out on the flashing bosom OF this
strange water. The largest and best
known is Antelope, which was once used
by the Mormons as a cattle corral for
the church herd. This island is sixteen
miles long by four WIDE and lies twenty
miles of the south coast. The
next in size is Stansbury, which
is fourteen miles in length. while
Fremont is seven miles, and Car
rington two-thirds as long as Fremont.
The Others Strong's Knob, Gunnison and
Dolphin, are grouped fifty miles to the
northwest Of Antelope, and are superb
limestone cliffs, almost wholly without
vegetation, and haunted by millions OF
gulls and other sea fowls.
In 1S49 Capt. Howard Stansbury made
a survey of these isolated points, since
when they have been visited on several
occasions by scientists interested in their
singular formation. A Salt Lake artEt
and writer, Alfred Lanbourne, to whom
was accorded the honor Of painting the
NH nj Vafp he
temple-pictures that cannot be seen by
Gentle eyes, as the interior Of this beau
tiful edifice is sacred to Mormon rites
has made a study of these furthest Islands,
and feels for them a splendid enthusi-
asm. His trips over rares made On the
Cambria, a catamaran owned and sailed
by Capt. Davis, who has spent the best
part Of thirty years on this water. The
two are fast friends and the most that
is known Of Strong's Knob and Gunni-
son comes from the captains modest ac-
counts and Lanbourne's picture-loving
brush and pen.
The four largest islands are used as win
ter pastures for sheep or cattle, but all
are uninhabited and without fresh water
except Antelope, whose one house-an an
cient adobe, built here by the Mormons
fifty years ago-is occupied by the island
herder and his family. There are hundreds
of acres of good grazing on the eastern
eTnment set apart the Salt Lake Islands
as a reservation for our nearly extinct
buffalo, some sixty American bison and
forty elk were transported to Antelope
The owners of the island endeavored TO
breed the buffalo in with Attorneys, but
so far have not succeeded, the shaggy
herce-eyed beasts rebellng at every ap-
proach to domestication. The elk proved
even more unsatisfa Glory, for after few
days of restless roaming they took 1t into
their antlered heads to swim back to the
main shore in a body, and landed on a
point fifteen miles from Antelope where
they were promptly shot down by the set
tiers thereabout.
Along the shores of the lake and in many
of the island bays the water presents a
remarkable appearance, a kind of madden
red spread out for acres. Upon investiga-
ton the cause of this sanguinary color
is found to be a thick layer of floating
larvae, the chrysalides Of worms the size
and shape of an oat kernel. Where these
accommodations exist an offensive smell Is
noticeable, and is the one disagreeable
feature of these desolate shores. In early
days the Utah Indians collected and dried
the larvae and used the mixture as
mush.
In the fall of the year the marshes at
the mouths of the rivers that empty into
the lake are covered by focks of wild
geese and ducks, with sometimes a state
" blue heron or swans with beautiful
white plumage. Their cheerful clatter and
the fresh green of the coarse grass and
singing weeds contrast delightfully."- with
the dreary tints and solitariness of the
immediate desert. There are also numbers
Of sea gulls, which visit the marshes to
fish, coming thirty miles from their rooK-
cries on Gunnison and its neighboring
isles The main food of the gulls is known
to be the infinitesimal live things found
in the bitter lake brine-a small winged
shrimp, smaller fly and its larvae, the
black worm before alluded to-the three
atomic creatures that comprise the animal
life of the lake.
Bathing in the lake is enc of the most de-
lghtful experiences imaginable. 1t is next
to impossible to sink in such dense water,
and one floats easily with head, arms.
knees, and feet entirely exposed, and this
without moving so much as finger. The
bathers wabble this way and that like so
many corks cast adrift. Swimming the
old way is evidently hard work, but an
habitue of these waters will throw his
body out and go hand over hand with u
speed not excelled in fresh water. Salt
Lake people will tell you what hard work
the famous Boyton made in 1886 Of his at
tempted swim to Antelope Island, and