Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-11-27
THE WATERS OF SALT LAKE.
Dead Sea of Western Hemisphere
Once Larger Than Lake Huron.


Salt Lake, the American Dead Sea. Among
all earth's weird wonders in water It has
but one rival or peer-the miracle-made
sea. whose waves of doom and oblivion
roll over Sodom and Gomorrah. the Chi
cago OF forty centuries ago. Think OF
lake from $50 TO 5000 square miles in
area, lying LOO miles inland, at an alti-
tude Of 425O feet above the sea level,
whose waters are six times as salt
those of the ocean; and while it has no
outlet. four large rivers pouring their
ceaseless floods of fresh water into 1t,
without raising it's mysterious surface
fraction OF an inch, or ever diminishing,
so far as chemical analysis can determine.
its Undesirable saltiness. Where does
all the water go? Where does all the
salt, that no streams can freshen, come
from? Where are the vast saline maya
zines from which II draws its everlasting
supplies? One may stand upon its shores
and ask a thousand such questions. but no
answer comes from its mysterious depths,
amid which death and silence reign su-
preme.
There is not q fish or any living thing
in all the $500 or 5000 square miles of
beautiful water, except the yearly-ln-
creasing swarms OF summer bathers. Not
a shark or a stingaree to scare the timid
fish to nip the toe of the wader; not
minnow or q frog, tadpole or polly
wog-nothlng that lives, moves, crawls, or
wrigges.
Long before human beings invaded this
mysterious and beautiful region or before
the little band of MOrmOns, after their
long march from Illinois and months of
weary travel across the barren plains
and over towering mountain ranges, pitch
ed their tents I'm the picturesque valley
adjoining Salt Lake, this wonderful body
II water was larger than Lake Huron and
| / 900 feet deep. Its ancient plashings are
still plainly visible on the mountain
| benches and are as easily traceable as
though they were written but yesterday.
! II is now about 100 miles long, with an
/ average width of from twenty-five to
thirty miles. 1t is from fifty to sixty
miles wide in some places. and its great-
est depth is about sixty feet. Its waters
/ contain about IS per cent. Of solid matter
mostly salt and soda with small proper
lions of sulphur, magnesla. calcium. bro
mide. potassium, lthia, and boracic acid.
The Asiatic Dead Sea water contains %
per cent. Of solids, including less salt
/ and soda and much more magnesia, call
/ cum. and potassium than Salt Lake At
| lantic Ocean water holds but 3.5 per cent.
! Of solid material, Of which salt constitutes
! &c per cent Hundreds of thousands or
/ tons Of salt are made by natural evapo-
| ration along the shores of the lake and
I at one place, near Salt Lake City a windy
night never fails to pile UP many tons
of soda, eliminated by the movement OF
/ the waves.
/ Compared with this vast liquid treasure
/ house OF riches, the greatest bonanza
| mines Of Utah or of the United States
/ dwindle TO beggars' penny-boxes. Take
| out your pencil and do a little figuring.
] Figures It Is said, will not lie, and You
/ will soon find yourself dumfounded before
/ your own mathematical truths.
! Say Salt Lake is 100 miles long, and has
| an average width of twenty-seven miles;
| that gives an area of 2,7O0 square miles.
! There are 27,S7S.O00 square feet in mile;
| so the lake has an area Of 1921, $4,000
/ square feet. Take 20 feet as its average
depth; then 20 times rs, 81, $4,000 will give
I us 1905 433, 600 cubic feet as the con-
tents Of the lake. Now, &c % per cent, or
one sixth Of this, according to the analy-
Sos Of eminent chemists, is salt and sui
phate Of soda.
That is. the lake contains 25O,9O5, 10000
cubic feet Of salt and sulphate Of soda.
OF this mass one eighth Is sulphate or
soda. and seven eighths common salt
A cubic foot of sulphate Of soda weighs
salt 50 pounds: so we have as the con-
tents. in part of this unparalleled reser-
voir OF wealth 1.56S 100 0O00 600 pounds, or
7Sl OS0 900 tons of sulphate Of soda, and
II $50 $50 200 900 pounds, or S7S9, 100 tons
OF salt Allowing ten tons to a carload,
that would be 7S,40S00O cars of soda and
S7SOl6. $50 cars of salt. Taking 30 feet as
the total length of a freight car and its
couplings. we would have a train OF soda
AS 800 miles long or nearly TO the moon
and back and a train Of salt 49SS,13O
miles In length. or long enough TO reach
1876 times around the earth, and leave an
SOO0-mile string of cars over on a SIDE
track Running twenty miles an hour,
and never stopping night or day it would
take the salt-laden train twenty-eight
years. five months, and twenty-three days
TO pass a station.
Carry the computation one step more.
The ordinary valuation Of sulphate or
soda is l cent per pound, or so per ton
Common salt at a low estimate, is worth
ID cent per pound, or $40 per ton, aggre-
eating for the salt and soda contained in
this great body Of water a value OF
SOB. as 2S6.000.
The irregular, picturesque banks, painted
a glistening snowy white by heavy de-
posits Of salt. extend miles from the wa
Z
evidence the old bed Of the present lake.
out of the motionless emerald water giant
mountains rise TO an elevation OF 5000
feet. In the summer they are covered
with yerdure and abound in exquisite
scenery. Near the tops many springs
send forth pure crystal water which
winds its way in silver threads about the
mountain, and, ultimately meeting other
water. forms larger streams, which leap
playfully over lodges and make sweet
music as they go dashing, splashing. sing
Ing merrily down the mountainside into
the lake below. Rich grasses flourish
everywhere. while extensive groves of
trees lend their exquisite beauty to the
scene
At this season Of the year the noun
tains are snow-capped, and when the SUMS
slanting rays spread over their immacu
late crests they sparkle and glisten as il
they were covered with rich jewels and
seem to be crowned monarch standing
sentinel over the sleeping lake and white
! valley below.
The lake has receded from the city pro-
per about twenty miles. One Of the most
delightful features of visit 20 the re-
gion Of the great Salt Lake is bath In
ths lake. One of the finest and most i'm
posing payilons in the world. which is
satd 10 nave cost a ndlI u miilOn COLLARS
has been erected in a beautiful site known
as Salt Air. Owing TO the air being so
thickly impregnated with salt that it Is
visible at times TO the naked eye. It has
received Its name.
Crowded trains run to and from the
lake at frequent intervals during the
summer months. Everybody can swim In
Salt Lake. People float around in the
water like eorks. In fact, II Is SO heavy
that IN A inDOsSibia IN sink No enictdas