The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-19
BOTTOMLESS PIT
Beneath Salt Lake Swallows Every
thing and Puzzles Scientists.
Salt Lake CITY Correspondence. New


thing and Puzzles Scientists.
, Salt Lake City Correspondence, New
York Sun.
E. H. Hartman has called some of
the most noted engineers in this coun-
try into a consultation over the COL
cost more than $1,OOO,OOO, and they ad-
NIT that they are puzzled. For the
past week they have been investigat-
ing the conditions at the point In
Great Salt Lake where the track sud
denly sunk into the water, throwing a
locomotive into the lake.
The Lucin cutoff is one of Mr.. Har-
riman's pet projects. 1t runs across
the northwest end of the lake. and by
it the Southern Pacific route to San
Francisco is shortened sixty miles.
The cutoff is considered one of the
remarkable engineering feats of mod
ern railroad building. The track was
laid across the lake on great piles, and
was so far completed that a locomotive
was sent spinning across it to test the
track. About a half mile from shore
the track sank into the water, and the
engine plunged into the lake, drowning
the fireman.
AT the point where the track drop
ped it is believed by some experts that
a bottomless quagmire has been dis
covered in the lake. Some engineers
indorse this theory, while others OPP
pose it.
Be that as it may, six 40-foot piles
of steel have been driven into the hole
on top of each other, and the entire
240 feet of steel shot through the bed
of the lake and could not be reached.
One hundred car loads of stone, or A.
100000 pounds, were dumped into the
hole, and ten minutes later could not be
located with 40-foot piles.
Some engineers incline to the belief
that the pit on the line of the cutoff
is a subterranean outlet of Salt Lake,
similar to that of the freakish Hum
boldt river in Nevada, but this theory
finds dssenters.
To illustrate what a scientific mys-
terry the lake really is it may be stat
ed that a mile from the Lucin cutoff
steel piles Were sunk till they encoun-
tered solid bed of sodium suIphate
as hard as iron. When the piles were
left over night the layer of sulphate
seemed to solder them in the bed Of
the lake and it was impossible to
bulge them with the aid of the most
powerful engines used in railroad
building.
This is but one of the scientific mys-
teries of this wonderful lake, which
is now holding up the construction of
Mr.. Harriman's pet schemes.
Prof. ]. E. Talmage. the geoIogist,
who is now at the lake investigating
the bottomless pit, opposes the theory
that the quagmire is an outlet of the
lake. He says that the site of the cut
off is the old bed of Bear river which
has been filled with illuvium not solid
enough to bear the weight of the tres
tie. He said to-day:
"At the south end of the lake piles
driven into the bed are particularly Sc
cure because of layer of sodium sui
phate, or mirabilite, which covers the
bottom of the lake to a depth of seven
or eight feet. This is beneath a layer
of loose or Slightly compacted layer
of oolitic sand. several inches in depth,
under which is another layer OF sand,
cemented by calcerous matter, which is
two or more feet in depth.
THE mirabilite, or, as it is known in
commerce, glauber salts, was precipi-
tated from the lake water at an earlier
stage in its history.
I'm the work of pile driving at this
part of the lake. where Garfield and
Saltair beaches are located, IL was
found to be practically impossible to
penetrate the layer of soda, even with
the best steel-pointed instruments. A