The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-14

sink downward tomorrow as it was ii
the days before humanity had begun tc
keep its record
The lake became salt after it's fina
egress was cut off. Were outlets to be
formed at this late period, it would re-
main salt for ages, SO deep has become
the salt bed in the centuries since stag
nation has been the fate of the waters
above few months ago profess
SCR who made a series of experiments
in the interest of salt industry of the
lake, announced that If every other
source of salt supply In the world were
cut Off, the Great Salt lake would be
able to furnish the ingredient as long as
the world should endure. In that state
nent he made no calculations for the
possibility that the lake itself should
cease to exist, but even in that event it
Is estimated that the solid deposits on
its bottom would be sufficient to pre-
vent salt hunger anywhere on earth
for as long a period as the mind can
| grasp.
From these illustrations better than
; from figures one is liable to gain an
appreciation of the time which must
have passed since the last disturbance
y NiDSSNi t'iN iNI tiiSi II S'lG anu NdISNi III
the then fresh-water lake. Although the
area of that period evidently many
| times exceeded that of modern times, it
may be asserted with certainty that
Bear and Utah lakes had by that time
! become separate from the main body,
or were by that CONFUSION set free.
They have remained fresh because they
have been drained into the Great Salt
lake. From the fact that Utah lake to-
day Is but 100 feet above the Salt lake,
1t is apparent that the larger body has
fallen less than that distance since the
last of the three great outpourlngs of
its contents.
The proof that ii has been much low
cred since then is found in the numer-
Gus salt deposits within 10 and 20
miles Of the shore, showing that the sea
salt once lay above the spots.
1t did not take the lake long to be-
come intensely saline after it was
locked in For it's expanse, it was shall
low even then. not more than 100 feet
deep at its deepest place, probably not
that. The maximum depth to-day is
60 feet, and the average Is not half that
figure. At some points one may wade
over the knees. 1t was as II huge
and shallow basin had been spread out
in the sun. The ratio of evaporation,
far greater than at sea level, hurried
the chemical action and in compare
lively short time the fresh water lake
was a salt sea. What may have been
the effect of the alkal in the surround
ing soil is problematlcal. Some per-
sons have credited it with being the
fundamental cause of the exceptional
salinty.
In the proportion of solid matter in
it's contents the Great Salt Lake Is sur
passed only by the Dea Sea. In the
former the ratio is So parts Of water to
IA of solids, in the latter 76 parts of
water to but S.5 parts solids, emphaslz-
ing the abnormal quantity of salt In
both the inland seas.
As the salinity increased the amount
of evaporation increased. and it is
likely enough that to this cause alone
the lake owed the gradual fall which |
brought it down to an area of 100 |
square mies-75 miles long and between
rs and 80 miles broad--its surface dur
ing the earlier half of the present cen
fury and at the time the Mormons came I
into the Jordan valley.
About 1850 the lake began to rise,
in few years the area Of |
1850 square miles which ii retained un-
til 1870, when irrigation ceased to be |
desultory and became a sustem The |
lakes rise has given rise to much dis
cussion, and furnished some excuse for
the interference of hidden feeding
stream. In general the phenomenon
Is laid to series OF unusually wet sea-
sons, which not only increased the
stpeams emptying into the lake, but
did away with the need Of irrigation.
Since 1870 irrigation has been taking
yearly more and more of the water
until the length of the lake has de
,reased from so miles 80 years ago to
barely 10, while it's width at no place
S greater than % miles. At some
places the shore line has receded five
niles within as many years.
The Mormons, however do not fear
he lake will ever disappear 1t is one
If their sources of wealth the pumps
which draw the water from the lake to
he evaporating squares which dot the
shore often going night and day 1t
would be more difficult and more ex-
7ensive to mine salt than to pump
water and leave the rest of the manu-
acture to the sun, Hence they have
aith that the Lord will not inflict the
,low upon them, They need river
water for irrigation, therefore they
ook to the lake water for some of their
income, therefore they expect that the
Irvine power which they believe, led
hem to their holy land will see that
he lake is kept filled. The contradic-
ion in their action and their faith they
o not appear to notice. They certainly
)oked to none but themselves to settle
he irrigation difficulty. ,
To the older generation Of Mormons ,
he lake is a sort Of fetch. The pio-
GERS regard it with actual reverence, i,
nd though they were not its finders
hey never would consider that any :
'ho preceded them had part in the :
onors of the discovery. They made ;
heir own claims good by bestowing :
pom it the name it bears. :
The Great Salt lake has been discov-
red the first time by as many different =
ersons as have most parts of Africa. {
efore any one actually visited it news
f the existence of a body of bad tast