The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-19
THE WATERS OF SALT LAKE.
WHAT THEY CONTAIN WOULD BE
SOB, 49,, 100000 IN NEW YORK.

From the Memphis Commercial-Appeal.
The most wonderful feature of all this
wonderful land, che mightiest marvel of
all marvellous Utah, an ocean of ma
iestic mystery, clad in beauty divine, is
great Salt Lake, the American Dead sea.
Among all earth's weird wonders in wa
ter it has but one rival or peer-the mir
acie-made sea whose waves Of doom and
oblivion roll over Sodom and Gomorrah,
the Chicagos of forty centuries ago. Think
of lake from $500 to 5000 square miles
in area. lying 1000 miles inland, at an
altitude of A 250 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
ceasess floods of fresh water into It,
without raising its mysterious surface
fraction of an inch, or ever diminishing
so far as chemical analysis can determine.
its indescribable saltiness. Where does all
the water go? Where does all the salt
that no streams can freshen come from?
Where are The vast saline magazines
from which it draws its everlasting sup
plies? one may stand upon its shores
and ask thousand such questions, but no
answer comes from its mysterious depths
amid which death and silence reign SUI
preme
There is not a fish or any living thing
in all the $500 or 5000 square miles of
beautiful water, except the yearly in
creasiug swarms of summer bathers. Not
a shark or a stingaree to scare the timid
swimmer or fioater; not a crab or a craW-
fish to nip the toe of the wader; not
winnow or a frog, tadpole or a pOllywog
nothing that lives. moves crawls or
wriggles.
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, pitched
their tents in the picturesque valley adj
Joining Salt Lake, this wonderful body of
water was larger than Lake Huron and
LOCO feet deep. It's ancient plashings are
still plainly visible on the mountain
benches and are as easily traceable as
though they were written but yesterday.
1t 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 greatest
depth is about sixty feet Its waters con-
tain about is per cent. of solid matter,
tions Of sulphur magnesia, calcium, bro
mide potassium, lithia and boracic acid.
The Asiatic Dead sea water contains %
per cent. of solids including less sail and
soda and much more magnesia, calcium
and potassium than Salt Lake. Atlantic
ocean water holds but 3.5 per cent. of solid
material, of which salt constitutes 2.6 per
cent Hundreds of thousands of tons of
salt are made by natural evaporation
along the shores of the lake, and 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, il is said. win not lie, and you
viii soon find yourself dumbfounded be-
fore 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 2.70O square miles. There
are 27,S7S 400 square feet in a mile so the
lake has an area of 1921 $4,000 square
feet Take twenty feet as Its average
depth; then twenty times 1921. $780, 900 will
give us 1906 1913 900 cubic feet as the
contents of the lake. Now, 1923 per cent
one-sixth of this, according to The analy-
ses of eminent chemists, is salt and sui
phate of soda.
That is the lake contains $50 800, 900 600
cubic feet of salt and sulphate of soda. OF
this mass one-egth is sulphate of soda
and seven-eighths common salt. A cubic
foot of sulphate of soda weighs fifty
pounds, and cubic foot of common salt
eighty pounds; so we have as the contents,
in part, of this unparalleled reservoir of
wealth 1865 1000 100000 pounds or 7S4,0S0 900
tons of sulphate of soda, and 1756O,SS9
100000 pounds, or $3.50, 169,6 900 tons of salt.
Allowing Ten tons to a carload, that would
be IS. 600 cars of soda and S78,O1696O cars
of salt Taking thirty feet as the total
length of freight car and its couplings,
we would have a train of soda 445,500 miles
long, or nearly TO the moon and back. and
a train of salt 4,9SS,730 miles in length or
long enough to reach 1856 times around the
earth and leave an 5000 mile string of cars
over on a side track Running twenty
miles an hour and never stopping night or
day, il would take the salt-laden train
twenty-eght years five months and TWEEN
ty-three days to pass a station.
Carry the computation one step more.
The ordinary valuation of sulphate of
soda is l cent per pound, or $40 per ton.
Common salt, at low estimate, is worth
u cent per pound, or $40 per ton, aggre-
eating for the salt ana soda contained
in this great body of water value of
SOB, ASS. 1886, 000.
The irregular, picturesque banks, paint
ed a glistening, snowy white by heavy
deposits of salt, extend miles from the
waters edge, marking with unmistakable
evidence the old bed of the present lake
Out of the motionless emerald water giant
mountains rise to an elevation of 1000 feet
In the summer they are covered with
verdure 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 payfully over
Lodges and make sweet music as they go
dashiug, splashng, singing merrily down
the mountain side into the lake below
Rich grasses flourish everywhere, while
extensive groves Of trees lend their ex-
quisite beauty TO the scene.
Al this season of the year the mountains
are snow-capped, and when the suns
slanting rays spread over their immac-
ulate crests they sparkle and glsten as
81 they were covered with rich towels and